2016 winter testing about to begin in Spain
Many top teams ready to start their preparations for the upcoming year of racing.
With the racing year over, it is now time for teams and riders to turn their attention onto winter testing, in order to be competitive off the starting blocks of the 2016 FIM Superbike World Championship. Four teams and their respective manufacturers have already revealed their testing schedule before New Year’s Eve: as expected, they will all test in Spain, with MotorLand Aragon and Circuito de Jerez as the chosen venues.
2015 title rivals Kawasaki and Ducati will kick-start their testing operations at Aragon tomorrow, for a two-day test that will help both factory teams to continue developing their experimental machines. New Champion Jonathan Rea will miss this outing as he will be on his wife’s side as she is due to give birth to their second child.
This year’s Riders’ and Manufacturers’ title-winning team will be back on track at Jerez on November 3-4 and again not alone: joining the KRT duo this time will be Alex Lowes, Sylvain Guintoli and the new factory Yamaha team, run by Paul Denning and his Crescent Racing outfit. Media and fans will be looking for a very early comparison between the 2016 Ninja ZX-10R and the WorldSBK-spec Yamaha YZF-R1M.
Honda’s new recruit, Nicky Hayden, will make his debut aboard the CBR1000RR Fireblade SP at Aragon on November 16-17 as the 2006 MotoGP World Champion and Michael van der Mark will share the track with all the aforementioned riders.
All teams will then return to the track at the end of the month at Jerez, just before the start of the testing ban. Ducati, Honda and Yamaha will be on track between the 25th and 27th, with KRT set to join the party one day afterwards.
