Effenbert Liberty Racing’s private tests in Portimao The 2011 Superbike World Championship just finished and the Effenbert Liberty Racing Team immediately started to work to prepare for the 2012 one. The team didn’t leave Portimao and took the opportunity to test, on the Algarve circuit,some riders that might be interesting for the future plans of the team. The riders in question are: Maxime Berger from France who just ended his first season in WSBK with the Supersonic Team , on Ducati , in 16th place, European Superstock1000 runner-up in 2008 and 2010 and third ,in the same championship,in 2009. Brett McCormick from Canada newly crowned Canadian Superbike Champion 2011, on BMW. Santiago Barragan from Spain – currently 2nd in the Spanish Stock Extreme Championship 2011, on Kawasaki. The test results have been satisfactory, characterized by discrete timings and all the riders were impressed by the efficiency of the team and our Ducatis. These are the timings recorded: Maxime Berger … …. 1’43.3 Brett McCormick … .. 1’44.2 Saints Barragan … … 1’47.0 In the coming days we will inform about any developments regarding eventual contract signings with the tested riders. More, from a press release issued by McCormick Racing: Recently crowned 2011 Canadian Superbike Champion Brett McCormick has rounded off his remarkable year with some impressive riding at world level. Offered a late season berth with the Garnier Alpha Racing Team in the Superstock 1000 FIM Cup Brett turned in a pair of solid performances on the BMW S1000RR. On October 2nd at Magny Cours Brett worked his way from a starting position of 19th to a credible 13th at the flag. A fortnight later, at last Sunday’s Portimao finale, he overcame a recalcitrant gearbox to make the run from 15th on the grid to a solid 10th place finish. It was in post-race superbike testing at Portimao where eyebrows were raised. On Monday’s media day, Brett, doing the legwork for a Canadian bike magazine, was able to sample several of this year’s class-leading superbikes. With only one flying lap permitted on each machine he repeatedly lowered his lap times. Respectable times of 1.47.5 on an Alitalia Aprilia RSV4 Factory and 1.47.0 on Carlos Checa’s Ducati 1098R were enough for Pirelli’s Giorgio Barbier to hastily arrange a Tuesday afternoon test session with Team Effenbert-Liberty Racing. On the Ducati 1098R campaigned by Jakob Smrz, and with only 30 laps available, Brett got down to work and was soon circulating consistently in the 1.44s with a best time of 1.44.2, putting him ninth fastest among the series regulars also testing on the day. Compared to riders’ fastest laps in Sunday’s action Brett’s time of 1.44.2 would have put him right in between the 9th and 10th place finisher in both superbike races. Currently evaluating his options for 2012 Brett has returned to Saskatchewan to play ice hockey, his second favourite sport. Brett can be contacted via his father/manager Grant McCormick at [email protected] .