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Day 1:
MUGGERIDGE MAKES PROGRESS IN SPAIN
Winston Ten Kate rider Karl
Muggeridge set the fourth fastest time on day one of a
two-day official World Superbike test at Valencia in Spain
today, as Troy Corser headed the combined time sheets.
After some frustrating tests earlier
this year, Muggas was happy to be able to spend some
quality time testing different tyre combinations and
chassis settings on his 2005 Honda CBR1000RR machines.
Karl Muggeridge - 66 laps, 1m36.913s
"We've got through a lot of work
today, trying different suspension settings, forks and
shocks, on different bikes, different tyres and so on,
just to try and get the fundamentals right. Finally we
decided this afternoon on the best bike with the best
combination of everything so far and finished fourth
fastest. We run out of front tyres towards the end of the
session so we had to try a different one to what we used
all day and it actually worked really well with the whole
settings we had. So I guess we find out tomorrow how good
it really is when we can do a few more laps on it. I
think it shows that we can do it and be competitive with
decent levels of grip. I've done a lot of laps today and
I'm feeling a bit tired because I haven't been able to
train much lately, because of the after effects of the flu
I had in Qatar, but I guess testing is the best training I
can do anyway, so I will keep adding up those laps
tomorrow."
Ronald ten Kate -
team manager:
"We didn't really have many
opportunities before the first round in Qatar to test
everything we wanted. During our time their, our riders
were suffering quite badly from flu and apparently some
people doubted how ill they really were. I think their
performances in today's first day of testing at Valencia
have shown that they can both be competitive when fully
fit. Today we've been able to make some progress at last
and I'm glad to see that it's all in a positive and
forward direction."
Day 2:
MUGGAS IN TOP FIVE AT VALENCIA
Winston Ten Kate Honda rider Karl
Muggeridge set the 5th fastest time over the
two-day official World Superbike test here at Valencia in
Spain.
Muggas and his team-mate Vermeulen
set respectable times on their qualifying tyres but are
both not really happy yet on their race settings and are
convinced they still can be improved.
Muggas comments: "We found some
better settings today, but we still got some work to do.
We aren't miles away on the race tyre from where we want
to be. We tried a lot of stuff again this afternoon but
just couldn't quite get enough grip on the race tyres. I
just need more time on the bike, I don't feel exactly home
yet, I have about 90% of the corners sorted around this
track it's just those other 10% that are missing at the
moment. But we made some good improvements the last two
days, I'm sure the rest will come as well. . I didn't
really get the chance to put in a good quick lap as I made
a mistake in the first corner, but we've really been
working on race set-ups and that's where we still need to
do some work. I'm happy I got a chunk of laps under my
belt, which should help us for Phillip Island to go into
the right direction."
Ronald ten Kate -
team manager:
"I'm really pretty happy with the
results of these tests and the positions and lap times of
both riders. It's good to see them in the top five. We've
got through a lot of work over the last two days, but
we've had to because we're still playing a bit of catch-up
with everyone else. I'm convinced we can do some more
development work for the next round and we know from last
year's Superbike campaign what needs changing between
Valencia and Phillip Island. Now we have had a decent test
we're not so far away from a solid base setting for the
CBR1000RR that can carry us through the rest of the
season."
The World Superbike championship now
packs up for the long trek to Phillip Island in Australia
where round two of the 2005 series takes place on 3 April.
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