RAIN LASHES FINAL DAY OF DUCATI XEROX TEAM TWO-DAY TEST AT EUROSPEEDWAY Bologna (Italy), Thursday 21 July: The second and final day of the Ducati Xerox Team’s two-day test at the Eurospeedway Lausitz in Germany was cut short this afternoon as heavy rain lashed the circuit most of the day. Régis Laconi and James Toseland managed to put in a full day’s dry-weather testing on the Wednesday, but bad weather conditions meant that none of the riders from the various WSBK teams present for the testing session could improve their times today. Yesterday the Ducati Xerox Team focussed on learning the track and general set-up work in the morning, before testing tyres for the championship’s one-make supplier Pirelli in the afternoon, while today the two riders concentrated on wet-weather tyres and set-up following a half-an-hour dry ‘window’ first thing in the morning. The top times recorded by both riders yesterday were 1m40.4s for Laconi, and 1m40.9s for Toseland on race tyres. “Today it rained really a lot and the track became a bit dangerous because there was not much grip” declared Laconi. “But we worked really well these two days, despite the difficult conditions. Yesterday in particular I put in a lot of laps and we fitted the large 200mm rear tyre I used during the Misano weekend, and the results were very good.” “The first day was a bit disappointing because we didn’t make much headway with the new front tyre and when I did have a decent front, the day was up and I was a bit behind with my time” commented Toseland. “Today I was the quickest before the rain and was looking forward to improving the rest of the day, but it didn’t happen. Then when I did get confident in the rain, I took a bit of a dive while trying to break the two-minute barrier. It was good we did a lot of testing in the rain because it might be like that here in September.” This year World Superbike returns to the impressive speedway facility in the former East Germany for the first time in three years. The 4.265 km Lausitzring has twice been the venue for the German Round of the championship, in 2001 (when the wins went to Colin Edwards (Honda) and Troy Bayliss (Ducati) and the following year, when Ducati’s Australian rider scored the double. This year’s race, round 10 in the 12-round calendar, will be held on September 11. UNOFFICIAL TIMES: 1. Vermeulen (Honda) 1m40.1s; Laconi (Ducati Xerox) 1m40.4s; 3. Lanzi (Ducati SC) 1m40.6s; 4. Toseland (Ducati Xerox) 1m40.9s; 5. Muggeridge (Honda) 1m41.2s; 6. Walker (Kawasaki) 1m41.3s; 7. Martin (Petronas) 1m42.0s; 8. Riba (Kawasaki) 1m42.3s; etc. More, from a press release issued by Winston Ten Kate Honda: RAIN CURTAILS WINSTON TEST IN GERMANY Rain on Thursday at Lausitzring in Germany cut-short a scheduled two-day Winston Ten Kate Honda test at the Eurospeedway circuit, limiting the team to just one full day on Wednesday. Chris Vermeulen and Karl Muggeridge used race rubber throughout the day, testing different chassis components and suspension settings to improve race performance. Ronald Ten Kate team manager: “Wednesday was good, as we tried a lot of different components and settings to further our development of the Honda CBR1000RR and to try to get more consistency on used race tyres. Everything went well, with Chris posting the fastest unofficial time of 1m40.1s comparing to Troy Bayliss’s 2002 lap record of 1m39.7s. Unfortunately, we only managed to get in a few laps on Thursday morning before it began to drizzle and then rain more heavily. We had a lot of other stuff to test on day two and lots of work to get through but, being unable to try anything useful, we packed up early to prepare for the next round at Brands Hatch.” Chris Vermeulen best time, 1m40.1s (on race tyres): “The first day at Lausitzring was really good and we played with a lot of different things on the bike. At the Magny-Cours test we had a lot of different Pirellis to test but this time round we just went through everything on standard race tyres. We worked on rear shocks, linkages, geometry, front forks the whole chassis really. We learned a lot more about how the bike behaves and performs on the same tyres with different settings, so it was really useful. I only did about 15 laps on Thursday but that was enough to find out that the circuit is incredibly slippery in the wet. They use it a lot for car races and there is lots of rubber on the surface.” “ Karl Muggeridge best time, 1m41.1s (on race tyres): “Everything went pretty good really and we definitely found a better way with the rear set-up, which allowed us to find more grip and durability in race situations. I only used two-and-a-half sets of race tyres on Wednesday, when I did about 100 laps. We just tried to maintain a good pace right the way through a race distance. The direction we found works pretty good and we’ll definitely be able to take it to Brands Hatch. We’ll still have some work to do on the front there because we had to cut the test short. Between now and then I’m going to take a little holiday in Greece give me a Greek salad, a deck-chair and some sun, and I’m happy!”” Eurospeedway, Lausitzring (4.265km) Unofficial times: Chris Vermeulen (Winston Ten Kate Honda) 1m40.1s; Regis Laconi (Ducati) 1:40.4; Lorenzo Lanzi (Ducati) 1:40.5; James Toseland (Ducati) 1:40.9; Chris Walker (Kawasaki) 1m41.2; Karl Muggeridge (Winston Ten Kate Honda) 1:41.2. 2002 fastest race lap Ruben Xaus (Ducati) 1:39.679 More, from another press release issued by Winston Ten Kate Honda: CHARPENTIER SEEKS EVEN MORE AT LAUSITZRING In spite of his domination of this season’s World Supersport championship, Winston Ten Kate Honda’s Sébastien Charpentier has been looking for even more from his CBR600RR at a test in Germany this week. Direct from his impressive win last weekend at Brno in the Czech Republic, the Frenchman rode at the Eurospeedway circuit, Lausitzring on Wednesday and Thursday. Ronald Ten Kate team manager: “With Katsuaki Fujiwara still recovering from his back injury in Japan, it was down to Sébastien to test a new fuel injection and ignition system on his own this week. Unfortunately, rain forced us to call an early halt to the test on Thursday morning but that didn’t stop him putting in a lot of work and posting an impressive lap time. He is hungry for any improvements we can find on the bike and, as a team, we are always looking to make small adjustments to boost its performance even further.” Sébastien Charpentier best time, 1m42.0s: “It was a very good test for me and the team and I was able to do a very good lap time. My bike felt even faster than at Brno but we also tested some development parts from HRC as we always look for improvements. The new injection and ignition system felt good and I made many practice starts to test it. In the dry on Wednesday everything felt good and I even made a few laps in the wet on Thursday morning, although it was very slippery. The weather was strange cold, windy and wet so I hope it is OK for the race there in September.” Eurospeedway, Lausitzring (4.265km) Unofficial times: Sébastien Charpentier (Winston Ten Kate Honda) 1m42.0s; Broc Parkes (Yamaha) 1:43.1; Kevin Curtain (Yamaha) 1:43.3 2002 fastest race lap Fabien Foret (Ten Kate Honda) 1:43.6