From a press release:

Wednesday, January 23, 2002

EDWARDS BACK INTO RHYTHM, AT KYALAMI

Castrol Honda’s Colin Edwards began his 2002 campaign with a shakedown on the opening day of a four-day Michelin tyre test at Kyalami, South Africa on Wednesday.

Edwards, a winner of World Superbike races at Kyalami in the past two years, was in relaxed mood after his opening day display as he bids to regain the World Superbike crown after winning it in 2000.

“We always knew today was about settling in again and from that point of view it’s been a good day,” said the 27-year-old Texan.

He added: “We spent a lot of the day setting up the new SP-2 machine with a view to testing some new Michelin tyres later in the test. The Kyalami circuit was very dusty and dirty so most of my day was about cleaning up the surface.”

Edwards concentrated on the front suspension settings of his 1000cc machine, using just two sets of tyres all day.

“We wanted to try and get a good feel from the machine, we improved it a lot but it’s still not quite there, we¹ll achieve that tomorrow,” he reported. “The dirty track affected traction and there was only me out there all day so it all got a bit painful. But we¹re here to prepare for the season. not to just try and get a fast lap at this track.”

Edwards recorded a fastest lap, late in the afternoon, of 1:43.32, just 0.4s outside the existing lap record for the 2.65-mile circuit on the outskirts of Johannesburg.

He is joined at the Michelin test from tomorrow by Ducati’s Troy Bayliss and Ruben Xaus.