News

KRT and FIXI Crescent Suzuki at Almeria for a two-day test

Thursday, 17 January 2013 15:00 GMT
KRT and FIXI Crescent Suzuki at Almeria for a two-day test

The Kawasaki Racing Team and the FIXI Crescent Suzuki today are on track for the first of two testing days at the Circuit of Almeria, Spain. The Kawasaki duo of Tom Sykes and Loris Baz will undertake the first shakedown of 2013 together with Leon Camier and Jules Cluzel, both ready to jump on their GSX-R 1000. Cluzel's maiden test on the FIXI Crescent Suzuki 'Gixxer' comes after a successful arm-pump surgery he underwent before Christmas.


Tom Sykes (Kawasaki Racing Team): "After a nice break over the holiday period I am looking forward to getting back on my Kawasaki. It has been a few weeks now so it will be good to get going again. Almeria is a circuit where we go to stretch our legs a little bit and break ourselves into a new year. We did the same thing last year and it seemed to work for us then, so we are going the same again in 2013. There will be a couple of things we want to try but the main aim is for everybody to get back into it, get up to speed and then away we go."


Loris Baz (Kawasaki Racing Team): "I am really ready for the season now. I had a good period of time off but it has been a while since we were on track because of the testing ban. I hear we have some new parts to test, in suspension and on the bike, so I am looking to see if we can improve in general and for me to reduce the gap to Tom. It is good to start testing at Almeria because it is a track that is not on the championship so we do not have any pressure and we can go step-by-step at the beginning."


Leon Camier (FIXI Crescent Suzuki): "I'm really looking forward to the test and seeing the progress the guys have made in the winter. I know that they have refined the bike quite a bit and that it has more power than last year, so I'm really excited about riding it. We will also have the new 17inch wheels to test, so it will be good to see how the bike behaves with them. I'm sure, that with everything the crew has done back at the workshop, we will be a lot nearer where we want to be. I've managed to do lots of riding during the break, including some Enduro and push-bike trials, and I'm off to do a bit of dirt-track before I go to Almeria, so that should sharpen me up nicely for the two tests."


Jules Cluzel (FIXI Crescent Suzuki): "I've had over two months of waiting to ride the FIXI Crescent Suzuki GSX-R and I'm now really excited that the time is here to get out on track. I don't really have an idea of what to expect from a 1000cc machine, how it will feel and handle and mostly how much quicker it will be, but I know I am really looking forward to whatever happens. I have done lots of training through the winter to get fitter and stronger and I had an operation to cure my arm-pump issues and that has been a success, so I feel really good and ready to go. I've ridden at Jerez before, but have never been to Almeria, so it's a good place to start my experience on the bike, as I don't know the track nor the GSX-R, so I can take it steady to start with and get to learn both."


Both teams will then move to Jerez to join other World Superbike teams for a further two-day test that will take place on 22-23 January.