From a press release issued by Fuchs Kawasaki:

MOTOGP WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP 2004
PRESEASON TESTING – PHILLIP ISLAND, AUSTRALIA
23RD FEBRUARY 2004

WILDLIFE WORRIES FOR NAKANO AT PHILLIP ISLAND

After the tropical heat and energy sapping humidity of Sepang, the Fuchs Kawasaki Racing Team were met with near perfect conditions as they arrived at the Phillip Island circuit in Australia for their final overseas test before returning to Europe.

But while the Phillip Island circuit provides an ideal testing ground, its proximity to the sea can cause unexpected problems for the riders. Shinya Nakano was forced to cut short three test runs this afternoon, following high speed collisions with low flying sea gulls. The 26-year-old Japanese rider was uninjured in the collisions, which, unfortunately, is more than can be said for the sea gulls involved.

While Nakano returned to Japan following the recent Sepang test, Alex Hofmann made the most of the break by heading to Australia’s Gold Coast for a well earned holiday. But it was back to work for both riders today, as they continued their preparations for the 2004 MotoGP World Championship, which kicks off in South Africa on April 18th.

Both Nakano and Hofmann started the day with the same bike set up as they’d finished the Sepang tests, before starting the process of fine tuning chassis geometry and suspension settings to better suit the fast and flowing characteristics of the Phillip Island track.

The Fuchs Kawasaki riders also took the opportunity today to evaluate a number of different ignition maps, designed to smooth the power delivery of the 990cc, inline four-cylinder ZX-RR engine.

Shinya Nakano: 1:33.32 (78 laps)
“Phillip Island is a fast circuit and a lot of fun to ride; I really enjoy testing and racing here. High speed grip is very important to lap times at this track, so we’ve focussed today on testing different chassis settings to find an improvement in this area, and we’ve definitely seen some positive results. Tomorrow we will focus more on finding a good setting for the rear of the bike and, hopefully, this will lead to further improvements in high speed grip. This is my third test on the Ninja ZX-RR and I felt a lot more confident on the bike today. The sea gulls are a bit of a problem here; you can see them coming, but you’re moving so fast that there’s just no chance to avoid them. All you can do is duck behind the screen and hold on.”

Alex Hofmann: 1:33.56 (82 laps)
“We started today on the settings from Sepang, but we knew we were going to have to make quite a few changes to the bike for it to work around such a fast circuit as Phillip Island. Once we started working on set up I struggled a bit with the rear of the bike; I just didn’t have the confidence in the rear grip. But we made a small improvement late this afternoon and that’s given me the confidence that tomorrow, with fresh tyres on the bike, we can continue to make improvements in this area.”