World Superbike

Foggy Racing Valencia test, day one

Valencia Test Progress for FPR Foggy PETRONAS Racing's Aussie riders Garry McCoy and Steve Martin today completed the first day of a two day official Superbike World Championship test at Valencia, Spain, in dry conditions. Returning to familiar ...

Edited: Mar 14, 2005, 5:13 AM

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Valencia Test Progress for FPR

Foggy PETRONAS Racing's Aussie riders Garry McCoy and Steve Martin today completed the first day of a two day official Superbike World Championship test at Valencia, Spain, in dry conditions.

Returning to familiar territory after the team's and World Superbike's inaugural outing at Qatar a few weeks ago, both Steve and Garry made further positive in-roads with the set up of their FP1s to suit their riding styles and also the nature of the Spanish circuit, in preparation for the championship's third round at the tight and twisty circuit next month.

With the main focus on testing chassis and engine package modifications, Steve and Garry maximised the track time of two, 2 hour sessions, completing 58 and 52 laps respectively. Both riders worked well through the comprehensive testing programme to include new suspension links, new swinging arms, modified shocks and a different cooling package which features larger water radiators and different oil coolers.

Both riders were able to improve their lap times throughout the day, with Steve posting an encouraging lap time on a race tyre of 1:37.930 to place him 13th in the timesheet, and Garry finishing the day with a time of 1:40.664 to put him 28th, having extensively evaluated a new longer swing arm and alternative suspension link system.

Team Manager, Jack Valentine commented, "I'm very happy with the amount we have tested today. Steve continued to work on his Qatar chassis package and tested new suspension links and shocks using the standard length swing arm. While it looks on paper that Steve has made more progress today, Garry has also had a productive day but just not in the same way. He's been working with a longer swing arm, again with new links and shocks, but has had to almost take a step backwards in experimenting with this, in order to go forwards again. The good thing is that he is happier with the longer swing arm and finds it makes the bike better suited to his riding style. The plan for tomorrow is to continue making further adjustments in the same direction but try and put in even more laps and longer runs, to try and improve lap times in readiness for the Valencia race."

Steve said, "I'm really happy with how things have gone today and pleased that I could post a relatively good lap time on a race tyre. We tested a new link in the rear suspension which seems to be positive and I'm a lot further forward than at Qatar in terms of being comfortable with the set up of my bike. It's good to be back at a track that petty much all the riders out there have been to before and know well, as that gives us a benchmark to pitch our progress and performance against. My aim for this test is to come away with a good set up for my riding style and also the race here next month and we're well on target for that."

Garry said, "I'm happier with the bike set up now that I have a longer swing arm, which for me and how I like to ride makes the bike feel more controllable. A lot of the day was spent testing that and also playing with the rear shock and new suspension linkage. We've made some good progress with each of these areas but there's still a bit more work to do. I stayed on the same tyres most of the day so not to confuse different adjustments we made, and this obviously hampered my lap times. The track temperature is lower than ideal and it also feels a bit slippery which is unusual for this track. We'll continue working on the same things tomorrow for fine tuning as well as make a few adjustments to the front suspension."

This official test continues tomorrow for the second and final day.

-fpr-

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