Yamaha Motor Germany riders Kevin Curtain and Broc Parkes had their first outing on the race-spec YZF-R6s they will race in next year's Supersport World Championship at the Valencia circuit in Spain today. The two Australians flew into Spain especially for the test and spent the day making shakedown runs on their bikes, respectively completing 72 and 60 trouble-free laps around the 4.05km circuit on the first of two days testing. The German squad has been working hard in conjunction with its suppliers over the past months to prepare two immaculate machines for the test. Both bikes have been fitted with Öhlins race suspension, although further development work is still to be carried out on the engine prior to the first race of the season, at Qatar in late February. Sunny conditions ensured that the riders were able to get maximum track time, although cool track temperatures meant that grip levels were limited. Today's test programme concentrated mainly on checking systems and machine familiarisation for both the riders and mechanics rather than setting outright lap times. Tyre supplier Pirelli has also brought along a range of rubber for the team to test. Sharing the Valencia circuit were the Yamaha Motor France world superbike team, who gave Japanese newcomer Shinichi Nakatomi his first outing on their YZF-R1 alongside team-mates Norick Abe and Sebastien Gimbert. Also at the test were the Yamaha Motor Italia-supported Lorenzini by Leoni team, which will enter Massimo Roccoli and Gianluca Vizziello in the world supersport series and Claudio Corti in the FIM Superstock 1000 Cup. David Checa, riding a YZF-R6 for the Yamaha GMT94 team, and the Virgin Mobile Yamaha British superbike team are also in attendance. Copyright-free photography (for editorial use) from today's test is available from the photo gallery section of www.yamaha-racing.com - further information will be available after tomorrow's final day of testing. Kevin Curtain "I really can't say how happy I am with the new bike. Even at this stage everything is an improvement over the R6 I rode last year. At the moment we're still running one of Öhlins off-the-shelf shocks but even so I felt really confident with the chassis. I really noticed it when I had a slide coming out of one of the right hand corners - I was half expecting it to pitch me off, but instead it was really predictable. Of course there were a lot of little things we had to fix today, like the gear lever and handlebar positions, but overall it's a very positive start. My lap times are already matching what we did last season and I can't wait for when we've got everything finished and how I want it."
By Alex Asigno
By Alex Asigno •
Curtain and Parkes debut new R6 in Valencia
Broc Parkes
"For a first day it's been perfect really. The bike feels good and so are the times. The track temperature has been too low to really push the bike but already my lap times are close to what we did last year, although that wasn't really the point of today. It's been two months since I last rode and so it was as much a case of remembering where the handlebars are as much as anything else! We've still got heaps of improvements to make, especially with the suspension settings, but that's the whole point of today and we've got a good idea of the direction to take."
Terrell Thien (Team Manager)
"It's been a good start. This is our first time running these bikes yet any problems we encountered today were small - like the gearlever position not being to Kevin's liking - but generally everything has worked well. All the electronics: the YCC-T system and our Motec engine management system, have worked perfectly and the rider's comments have both been good. The chassis is a major step forward and this bike has been built to race. Our lap times are already good and we will find improvements tomorrow. I'd like to thank all of our suppliers for their hard work in supplying us with the parts we needed to be ready for this test, especially Becker Carbon and Gillies Tooling, and to our mechanics, who have worked constantly for the past month, often through the night, to get the bikes ready."
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