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The 2022 MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship is back in action this week, and one team has already hit the track ahead of the Estoril Round. Scott Redding (BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) and teammate Michael van der Mark are on track at Portimao today (May 16^th), as they take part in a one-day test. Redding’s focus will be on finding a strong base-setting, whilst van der Mark’s time will be spent getting vital track time. Shaun Muir previewed the team’s plan of action.

Talking about the testing plan for BMW at Portimao, Muir said: “We have a strict test plan, dedicated to start performance with developed hardware. There’re also some different weight balance parts we’re trying, so adding weight to the bike and also an overall ergonomic bike chassis set-up with electronics that we’ll be trying and working on over the course of that day.

“Long runs will clearly be something for the latter part of the test, but the early part will be closing out some clutch related parts, which were done by Michael Galinski’s team in Oschersleben,” he continued, with the Bonovo Action BMW team completing a test in Germany last week. “Also, with the chassis aspects, we’ll have different triple clamps and pivot settings, so it will be setting bases which is what the test is going to be about.”

Commenting on whether both riders will have the same material: “They’ve got the same material; it’s a two-pronged attack from Mikey almost. Don’t forget, from December last year until Assen, he’d not ridden a bike. He’s definitely lacking race pace laps and we need to get that underway. He’ll start with a similar setting that we’re going down, but it’ll be more about track time for Mikey and setting time for Scott.”

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