Sykes and Baz continue testing programme at Valencia
Kawasaki Racing Team pairing Tom Sykes and Loris Baz concluded two days of testing at Valencia yesterday as part of the build up to the 2013 FIM Superbike World Championship season.
The Valencia circuit, tight and intense, with many corners squeezed into a small overall area, was dry for the team on the first day but rains at lunchtime on the second day brought the tests to a premature halt. Despite this, each rider still put in more than 130 laps so the sessions proved to be very worthwhile in a multitude of ways. The asphalt at Valencia has been resurfaced recently and was smoother than the last visit to the former SBK championship circuit.
As the venue is no longer used for SBK racing it was decided to not carry on testing in wet conditions, with action finishing at around 1pm, as the data gathered would have only very limited relevance. In dry conditions the team believe that the resurfaced track was around 0.5 seconds faster than before after consulting with other teams that were running Spanish championship machinery at the tests.
Tom and Loris consider that for a first shakedown of their new 2013 Ninja ZX-10R race machines the track offered a good opportunity to gain valuable track time, until the rains arrived.
Last year in testing Sykes put in a 1'33.1s lap time at Valencia, and this year, on day one and then again on worn tyres on day two, he set a 1'32.8s best. Baz set a strong 1'33.4s lap time, a good mark considering that fast outright lap times were not the aim of this test in particular. Both riders consider that if the rains had not appeared on the final afternoon then their lap times could have been in the region of 0.5 seconds faster.
The next test outing for the team will be at Motorland Aragon, in mid November, with three days of action scheduled.
