From a press release:

Foggy PETRONAS Racing Complete First Overseas Test

Foggy PETRONAS Racing, the World Superbike team owned by riding legend Carl Fogarty and backed by Malaysian petroleum giants PETRONAS, have successfully completed their first overseas test.

Although adverse weather and track conditions at the Eurospeedway in Lausitz, Germany, reduced the time available on the track, the four-times World Superbike champion was pleased with results.

Foggy said: “As we are a brand new team with a brand new bike, whatever testing we do at this stage is going to be worthwhile. The chassis is responding well to adjustments and I am confident we will be able to improve engine performance.”

Nigel Bosworth, Team Manager, added: “Given the stage of development and tuning of the engine, we are really encouraged by the riders’ lap times which are not far off the middle of the grid expectations. It is also worth bearing in mind that those lap times were set without a qualifying bike set-up or the best tyre compounds.”

Both Foggy PETRONAS Racing riders, Troy Corser and James Haydon, began the test by working through basic set-up evaluations to include front and rear suspension, rear shock positions, ride heights and rider comfort factors.

The development of the Foggy FP1 continued on the second and third days as efforts turned to geometry settings, tyre evaluation, engine mapping and temperature systems development.

Comprehensive rider feedback and telemetry data gained from the tricky Eurospeedway circuit – with its bumpy slow corners, awkward ‘S’ bends, long sweeping corners and fast straights – has provided the team with valuable data from the FP1’s systems and a greater understanding of the bike’s behaviour under different conditions.

Following on from track tests in England, and before moving to warmer circuits of southern Europe for testing throughout the next two months, the team continue to make significant steps forward in the build-up to their race debut in the 2003 World Superbike championship.

Experience Aussie rider, Troy Corser, commented: “We completed a good number of laps, made changes to the front and rear of the bike and definitely made some steps forward with the set-up.

“I didn’t want to go changing too many things but just take small steps at a time and really feel those changes to put the whole picture together and form a better way forward. I was going faster without trying any harder so the bike is clearly getting better.”

James Haydon, after his first experience of the Eurospeedway circuit, said: “I can tell we have made big improvements with my bike resulting in four seconds being taken off my lap times, which is great.

“I’m more comfortable on the bike as well and, all things considered, I feel we got as much out of this test as we could given the adverse weather and track conditions.”