Shane Byrne (Sterilgarda Ducati) cracked the overall track best at Portimao today to head the time sheets for the second day in succession, breaking Bayliss’ previous record of 1’43.340, while using Pirelli race tyres, not qualifying rubber. His 1’43.294 was a remarkable achievement for a privateer rider in his first full season of WSB competition, as he held off the factory Yamaha of Ben Spies and the factory Ducati of Noriyuki Haga. Another British rider moving up was Tom Sykes (Yamaha World Superbike) who was fourth today, and close to Troy Bayliss’ old track best set only a few weeks ago at the final race of the 2008 season. Carlos Checa (Honda) made the required improvements to push himself forward to fifth place in the rankings, with Max Neukirchner taking the top Suzuki slot again, sixth and less than 0.4 seconds from Byrne. Jakub Smrz was seventh fastest on an almost fully dry track surface, before crashing his Guandalini Ducati late on. Michel Fabrizio, Jonathan Rea and Leon Haslam rounded out the top ten, all within a second of the leader. Troy Corser was 12th on the all-new BMW, while Shinya Nakano went 17th on the Aprilia RSV-4. In the Supersport class Spaniard Joan Lascorz (Provec Motocard Kawasaki ZX-6R) was once more the fastest rider, ahead of class rookie Cal Crutchlow (Yamaha World Supersport Team). Kenan Sofuoglu was finally third, ahead of local rider Miguel Praia, having a great test so far on his Parkalgar Honda. World Champion Andrew Pitt took the second Hannspree Ten Kate Honda to fifth best time today, one up on Praia’s team-mate, Eugene Laverty. Barry Veneman was top Suzuki rider, seventh fastest and 0.7 from the best mark. One day of testing is still available for WSS and SBK teams tomorrow. Times: 1. Byrne S. (GBR) Ducati 1098R 1’43.294; 2. Spies B. (USA) Yamaha YZF R1 1’43.484; 3. Haga N. (JPN) Ducati 1098R 1’43.487; 4. Sykes T. (GBR) Yamaha YZF R1 1’43.546; 5. Checa C. (ESP) Honda CBR1000RR 1’43.657; 6. Neukirchner M. (GER) Suzuki GSX-R 1000 K9 1’43.674; 7. Smrz J. (CZE) Ducati 1098R 1’43.767; 8. Fabrizio M. (ITA) Ducati 1098R 1’43.951; 9. Rea J. (GBR) Honda CBR1000RR 1’44.115; 10. Haslam L. (GBR) Honda CBR1000RR 1’44.170; 11. Kagayama Y. (JPN) Suzuki GSX-R 1000 K9 1’44.425; 12. Corser T. (AUS) BMW S1000 RR 1’44.479; 13. Laconi R. (FRA) Ducati 1098R 1’44.546; 14. Kiyonari R. (JPN) Honda CBR1000RR 1’44.610; 15. Parkes B. (AUS) Kawasaki ZX 10R 1’44.704; 16. Polita A. (ITA) Ducati 1098R 1’45.108; 17. Nakano S. (JPN) Aprilia RSV4 1’45.179; 18. Biaggi M. (ITA) Aprilia RSV4 1’45.260; 19. Roberts B. (AUS) Ducati 1098R 1’45.278; 20. Salom D. (ESP) Kawasaki ZX 10R 1’45.393; 21. Tamada M. (JPN) Kawasaki ZX 10R 1’45.446; 22. Lavilla G. (ESP) Honda CBR1000RR 1’45.672; 23. Hill T. (GBR) Honda CBR1000RR 1’45.679; 24. Scassa L. (ITA) Kawasaki ZX 10R 1’45.820; 25. Xaus R. (ESP) BMW S1000 RR 1’46.128; 26. Rolfo R. (ITA) Honda CBR1000RR 1’46.916; 27. Iannuzzo V. (ITA) Honda CBR1000RR 1’46.971. More, from a press release issued by Parkalgar Honda: PARKALGAR HONDA’S Miguel Praia posted the fourth fastest time during the second day of the official World Supersport test at the team’s home Parkalgar Algarve Motor Park circuit near Portimao in Portugal while Eugene Laverty made a dramatic improvement to finish sixth quickest. Portuguese local Miguel has started 2009 with real enthusiasm, challenging at the Almeria test for top honours earlier in the week and then posting a top six time yesterday. In today’s dry afternoon session he stepped up another gear to take fourth a full one-second faster than his race best at the same track just over two months ago. Miguel said: “I have worked hard on my fitness and preparation over the winter and the new 2009 Parkalgar Honda is very good. We are still working on developing the bike and I am very confident we can keep on improving. My lap time is much better than the race here in November, which is very encouraging.” Parkalgar Honda racer Eugene Laverty benefited from following Miguel for a number of laps to learn the circuit turning points and braking markers. The Irishman improved from 16th yesterday to sixth today, less than three-quarters of a second behind fastest man Juan Lascorz on a Kawasaki. “Thank you to Miguel for giving me a tow for a couple of laps, it really helped me to get to grips with the track,” explained Eugene. “I tried two different fork settings settings and found a big improvement. It has been a good day and now I am within touching distance of the front runners I am much happier.” Tomorrow is the final day of the test and rain is forecast, although the Parkalgar Honda team is hoping it will remain dry so it can pursue further dry lap time improvements. Parkalgar Honda Team Manager Simon Buckmaster said: “Miguel is absolutely flying and the team is really upbeat that he is riding so well. He also helped Eugene and that is something we all value we are a team, not two teams within one. Eugene has improved dramatically by simply concentrating on his own riding and now has a better direction on his bike as well. We hope it doesn’t rain tomorrow, but already this has been a fantastic test for the team, with both riders in the top six well done to everyone.” A report on the final day of testing will be available tomorrow (Sunday 25th Jan), along with photographs at www.parkalgar-honda.com. Saturday Second Timed Session 1 26 Lascorz J. (ESP) Kawasaki ZX-6R 1’45.214 2 35 Crutchlow C. (GBR) Yamaha YZF R6 1’45.264 3 54 Sofuoglu K. (TUR) Honda CBR600RR 1’45.397 4 117 Praia M. (POR) PARKALGAR HONDA CBR600RR 1’45.757 5 1 Pitt A. (AUS) Honda CBR600RR 1’45.817 6 50 Laverty E. (IRL) PARKALGAR HONDA CBR600RR 1’45.960. More, from a press release issued by Xerox Ducati: PROGRESS CONTINUES TO BE MADE IN THE DUCATI XEROX GARAGE AT PORTIMAO Portimao (Portugal): Saturday 24th January 2009: Noriyuki Haga and Michel Fabrizio continued the testing of their Ducati 1198 F09 machines on track today at the Autodromo Internacional do Algarve in Portugal. In the morning session the Ducati Xerox riders did not go out due to the wet track conditions. In the second session of the day Noriyuki and Michel continued to test various suspension settings and tyres with positive results. Of the 27 riders on track, Noriyuki and Michel were among the eight who lapped in under 1m44, with Noriyuki registering the third fastest time of the day and Michel the eighth. New Ducati rider Noriyuki feels that he is making good progress while team-mate Michel would like to see an improvement in his performance tomorrow. Tomorrow afternoon all teams will have the chance to test out the two new regulation changes this year, in particular the new ‘knock-out’ format of Saturday’s Superpole. Michel Fabrizio “Today we lost the way a little bit, I’m not sure why but I didn’t feel 100% comfortable. I’m sure that we can sort it out tomorrow and we’ll continue to test the new tyres, hopefully with much better results. I would like to be able to finish this three-test in the same way we finished at Kyalami.” Noriyuki Haga “Today we found a good setting but I need more track time using that setting. I am also still learning with regard to the feeling of the bike but I feel that I’m making good progress. The last few tyres we tried felt good but with us still testing different suspension settings, it means we haven’t yet found the perfect balance I don’t think. We will see what further progress we can make tomorrow.” TIMES: Day 2 Byrne (Ducati) 1m43.2s; Spies (Yamaha) 1m43.4s; Haga (Ducati Xerox) 1m43.4s; Sykes (Yamaha) 1m43.5s; Checa (Honda) 1m43.6s; Neukirchner (Suzuki) 1m43.6s; Smrz (Ducati) 1m43.7s; Fabrizio (Ducati Xerox) 1m43.9s “¦..