Shinichi Nakatomi is ready for the 4th round of the Superbike World Championship. He discovered this track last year and participated to the winter tests. Norifumi Abe finished here two times in fourth position last year. Shinichi Nakatomi was careful at Donington, were about 60 riders crashed, including Troy Bayliss, Yukio Kagayama, Sebastien Charpentier, Kevin Curtain and Broc Parkes. March 18 and 19 tests result: 1-Bayliss (Ducati) 1:34.102; 2-Xaus (Ducati) 1:34.565; 3-Lanzi (Ducati) 1:34.584; 4-Biaggi (Suzuki) 1:34.708; 5-Corser (Yamaha) 1:34.851; 6-Haga (Yamaha) 1:35.029; 7-Nieto (Kawasaki) 1:35.410; 8-Muggeridge (Honda) 1:35.470; 9-Neukirchner (Suzuki) 1:35.532; 10-Laconi (Kawasaki) 1:35.639 — ¦15-Nakatomi (Yamaha) 1:36.832 The Valencia circuit The first Valencia World Superbike race was held in 2000. The circuit is next to the town of Cheste, 25 km from Valencia, 320 km from Madrid and 370 km from Barcelona. The “Circuit de la Comunitat Valenciana – Ricardo Tormo” is 4,005 km long and between 12 and 13 meters wide. It has 9 left-hand turns and 5 right-handers, with radii ranging from 30 to 250 meters. The start-finish straight is 876 meters long. Maximum downhill camber is 5.33% with 3.58% uphill. Paddock area is 49,066 m2. Maximum seating capacity for spectators is 60,000, with room for a further 50,000 on the hills surrounding the circuit. Valencia is a fascinating but tricky circuit. It’s easy to get caught out by the many slow turns. It’s certainly not the kind of track where a Superbike rider can really use his machine’s power and speed. First gear has to be used several times and that always means extra care has to be taken. The track heats up the left hand side of the rear tyre. Especially in the double left-hander that leads down onto the start-finish straight and really puts the edge of the tyre under pressure. Valencia is a real stop-and-go circuit where the front tyre has to be good for hard braking and fast cornering. World Championship standings: 1-Toseland (Honda) 115 points, 2-Biaggi (Suzuki) 110, 3-Haga (Yamaha) 88, 4-Corser (Yamaha) 81, 5-Lanzi (Ducati) 66…18-Nakatomi (Yamaha) 12 2007 Yamaha Race Training program at Valencia While the third round of the World Superbike Championship was happening at Donington Park, Yamaha were busy making sure that a selection of national race teams from all over Europe were getting the best training to help them maximize the potential of their race bikes. For the past five years, Yamaha Europe’s Racing Division has run the Yamaha Race Training (YRT); a three day course aimed at providing European Yamaha race teams the opportunity to learn about how to make the most of their R-series race bikes. Within this training Yamaha’s best Japanese and European Yamaha Racing engineers help teams with their pre-season preparations and raise the knowledge level in terms of the technical set-up and machine tuning of their YZF-R6 and R1. Valencia stats Practice record (2003): 1:34.633 Neil Hodgson (Ducati) 152.360 kph Lap record (best race time 2003): 1:35.007 Neil Hodgson (Ducati) 151.760 kph 2006 Yamaha Motor France practice times: Nakatomi: 1:36.794 / 21st; Abe: 1:35.974 / 8th; Alfonsi: 1:39.117 / 33rd Race 1 result 2006: 1- Bayliss (Ducati), 2-Corser (Suzuki), 3-Lanzi (Ducati), 4-Abe (Yamaha), 5-Haga (Yamaha) 2006 Yamaha Motor France race 1 results: Nakatomi: 12th; Abe: 4th; Alfonsi: DNF Race 2 results 2006: 1- Bayliss (Ducati), 2-Corser (Suzuki), 3-Lanzi (Ducati), 4-Abe (Yamaha), 5-Haga (Yamaha) 2006 Yamaha Motor France race 2 results: Nakatomi: 12th; Abe: 4th; Alfonsi: DNF 5th round of the Superbike World Championship: April 29th at Assen (Nederland)