From a press release issued by Honda: Spanish World Superbike at Valencia Wednesday 2 April, 2008 World Superbike and World Supersport preview CHECA GOING FOR BEST YET AT HOME CIRCUIT Carlos Checa (Hannspree Ten Kate Honda CBR1000RR) has made only four race starts in his short World Superbike career so far, but he has already posted some impressive scores on the all-new Honda Fireblade. He enters his home race at Valencia this coming weekend having already secured a podium place in the previous round, when he was just over one second from his first ever World Superbike race win. Despite his relative lack of experience in this category of racing, Checa has now climbed to fifth overall in the championship, after adding a sixth to his second place at the Phillip Island round in early March. He knows Valencia well from his days in MotoGP and he can take heart from the fact that James Toseland gave Honda its first World Superbike win at this venue last season, on his way to taking the title itself. Checa’s desire for strong performances in front of his home crowd on Sunday is already obvious and his ambition for more podiums has been fired by a positive recent experience at the 4.005km Valencia circuit. Alongside his team-mates, Ryuichi Kiyonari (Hannspree Ten Kate Honda CBR1000RR) and reigning World Supersport champion Kenan Sofuoglu (Hannspree Ten Kate Honda CBR1000RR Jr) Checa took part in a successful two-day official FGSport test at Valencia between 13 and 14 March. Each rider worked particularly hard to improve their race set-up as all are new to this class and are still getting to know all the secrets of the 2008 CBR1000RR. Kiyonari set 177 laps during the test, Checa 166 and Sofuoglu 135. Roberto Rolfo (Hannspree Althea Honda CBR1000RR) feels positive about his approach to the Valencia race after making great progress at the official test in March. The race on Sunday will mark Rolfo’s third World Superbike visit to Valencia, as he chases his first podium finish since his move across from MotoGP in 2006. Gregorio Lavilla (Vent Axia Honda CBR1000RR) has only recently tested his 2008 equipment and was therefore unable to run at the official Valencia practice sessions. He has had to use 2007 equipment in races until now, making his current top ten placing in the championship table a more than respectable early ‘homecoming’ to World Superbike. A podium regular in his previous WSB career before he entered and won the British Championship, Lavilla is one of several Spanish riders with high hopes of a strong home result on Sunday April 6. Karl Muggeridge (DFX Corse Honda CBR1000RR) was the fastest rider of all at the Valencia tests in March, running a bike which is still very much under development. Nevertheless, Muggeridge set a new track record best of 1’34.252, on qualifying tyres. Russell Holland (DFX Corse Honda CBR1000RR) was also at the Valencia test, despite suffering from a nasal infection. Shuhei Aoyama (Alto Evolution Honda CBR1000RR) and Luca Morelli (Alto Evolution Honda CBR1000RR) will enter the Valencia round looking for their first points of the year, but did not have the opportunity to test with their peers last month. After his experiences at the FGSport tests, Checa said: “We did a lot of hard work and now we have a clear idea on settings for the race itself. We tried different links, geometry, and front to back balance. Our idea was to do a long run, maybe 20 laps, but we only did 12, but already I can see that we can do 1m 35s laps. We will have new tyres for the race we didn’t have for the test so I am looking to improving our pace even more. We grew up a lot during our last test and it has all been quite positive.” Lavilla, currently in tenth place with 18 points said: “We had a good first experience with the 2008 bike on Monday at Almeria. It really is a new bike but it has a lot of positives already. More or less, we matched the performance of last year’s bikes, first time out. We didn’t get the chance to test the new bike in Valencia so we may lose some time early in the weekend, working out gearbox settings and so on. We should do that quite quickly and I am very positive about the next round, and the coming races.” Kiyonari said: “I feel more confident on the bike now, and I think we can make a good race in Spain – I hope so. I have more feel from the front and rear tyres and all things are getting a little better. I start to understand the machine better every time I go out on the track and I was happy with the improvement in my laptimes in testing. Normally we have some work to do on Friday before the race but with the progress we made in the March tests, we hope to find the right setting almost straightaway.” Sofuoglu, who shares 11th place with Kiyonari on 17 points, said: “In Valencia you have to carry a lot of lean angle and that is difficult to handle with a lot of horsepower; it’s difficult to understand the power. But I am learning every corner, every lap, every test, every race. At the moment I cannot reach my goal so what I am doing is finding out how to make the improvements I need to meet my goal.” Rolfo said after his positive testing experience at Valencia: “I think we made a big improvement. We need maybe half a second more pace for the race and maybe half a second to get onto the second row in Superpole. The team is improving quite a lot and the bike is working well, because we made a big jump in the front suspension settings. I have more feeling from the bike and I have never been as fast in Valencia as I was in the test. I am confident for the race and for sure the technical guys have been working hard on the engine spec since the test.” Muggeridge was energised by his record pace at Valencia but his pre-race statement shows he is not getting carried away. He said: “We are definitely starting to understand how the bike needs to be adjusted now. We will go to the race at Valencia feeling quite good and if we can change the things we need to before we get there then we will be in good shape. I don’t expect to go there and win, but I am expecting good solid results. I’m not getting too excited. Our race pace is good but we are still missing maybe three or four tenths. We’re looking for that, and a bit more power.” Valencia is the third event of a reduced 14 round World Superbike series, which is no longer a 15 round championship after the cancellation of the proposed round at Sentul in October. World Supersport Championship What is now a 13-round World Supersport Championship will have its latest outing at the tight and twisting Ricardo Tormo stadium-style racetrack this weekend. The Valencia venue has traditionally been a happy hunting ground for Honda, with CBR600RR machines winning the past three Valencia World Supersport races in a row. Honda riders now fill the top three championship places in the 2008 series, after Andrew Pitt (Hannspree Ten Kate Honda CBR600RR) won the second round in Australia last month. Josh Brookes (Hannspree Stiggy Motorsports Honda CBR600RR) finished within touching distance of the win at Phillip Island himself after a fantastically unpredictable race. With the 20 points he earned for second added to his 13 points from Qatar, Brookes now leads Honda privateer Joan Lascorz by four points at the top of the table. By securing third in the most recent race, in Australia, Robbin Harms (Hannspree Stiggy Motorsports Honda CBR600RR) is fifth in the rankings at present, on the same 25 point level as Pitt and another seasoned campaigner, Broc Parkes. Jonathan Rea (Hannspree Ten Kate Honda CBR600RR) has had two intense early experiences in his rookie WSS season, having raced and qualified 5th in Australia, helping to make up for his no-score in the first round. He is currently ninth in the standings. Craig Jones (Parkalgar Honda CBR600RR) is out to wipe the memory of his disappointing 16th place in Australia from his mind, and attempt to repeat or better the third place he scored in the opening race of the year at Losail. Gianluca Nannelli (Hannspree Althea Honda CBR600RR), like most of his main competitors on Honda machinery, tested at the official FGSport sessions recently. He set an ego-boosting equal best time of the test after two days on track. He will not be joined at the Valencia race by his 2008 team-mate Tommy Hill (Hannspree Althea Honda CBR600RR) as the English rider continues to recover from his long list of pre-season injures. Twenty year-old Andrea Antonelli will once more substitute for Hill. Brookes said: “Valencia is not my favourite track, but I did good lap times there in the pre-season test back in November. I think the improvements the team and I have made since then lead me to believe we have a good chance of winning. After the first two rounds, I am very happy to be leading the championship. There are many races to come, but I have confidence in my team and in myself and will try my best to be fast and consistent.” Pitt said: “At the test in March we didn’t get to set a fast final time because of a red flag incident but our race pace was really good. I did a 16 -lap run on one tyre and still managed to stay in the 1m 37s until the end. That shows how competitive we can be. We made a bit of progress on our qualifying settings, so I am happy with that too. I’m confident and I’m looking forward to the next race.” Harms said: “After the success in the last two rounds, all I want to do is race. Unfortunately I didn’t have the chance to test at Valencia with the team in November as I was still recovering form my shoulder injury. But I have a lot of confidence in the team and know they collected lot of valuable data then, so I think we will be OK.” Rea said: “We had a big breakthrough with the setup on the final day at the Valencia tests last month. The team put in a lot of work and helped me go out there with a different attitude. On the first day we were over a second off the fastest lap time but we finally got the gap down to 0.4 seconds. We managed to do a full race distance simulation and showed consistency throughout.” Nannelli, currently 17th overall on six points said: “Testing at Valencia gave us a very good single lap time. But it’s not just the lap time; it’s the race time that matters most. I think we’ve still got a bit of work to do to find the best balance. I want to find a better set up for my bike during practice at Valencia to be ready for the race.”