The new venue of Vallelunga proved to be a stiff test for all 17 World Superbike riders who attended the official test session, and despite the often tight and twisting layout of the unknown circuit, Regis Laconi (PSG-1 Kawasaki Corse Ninja ZX-10R) finished sixth in the overall ranking. Laconi made positive steps with his overall machine set-up at Vallelunga, but had to ride hard to get into the upper echelons of the final results, especially on a track surface which reached over 50°C on occasion. The peculiar mix of fast and slow corners at Vallelunga was a particular obstacle to overcome at these tests, but the lessons learned will nonetheless make the task of finding a set-up for the race itself in late September a more straightforward one.
Fonsi Nieto (PSG-1 Kawasaki Corse Ninja ZX-10R) ended his two days 13th, after base set-up changes designed to suit the most recent test circuit of Brno were not easily translated into quick lap times at the 4.110 km circuit near Rome.
The third PSG-1 rider at the Vallelunga test, Vittorio Iannuzzo (PSG-1 Kawasaki Corse Ninja ZX-10R), was 15th, having his first dry weather experience of any note on the ZX-10R, after a previous wet outing at the Silverstone round in May.
The team now heads to the ninth round of the year at Brno in the Czech republic, on 22 July.
Regis Laconi:“I had a lot of difficulty with the front and I am having to ride at the limit right now. I have been able to do some fast laps but I have to push very hard. This track is difficult for us especially the last part which is very slow, and I don’t have enough confidence from the front as I would like. We have found a solution to the problem we were having with chatter and now I hope that the solution will work at other tracks also. We have definitely made an improvement because up until now chatter has been our main problem.”
Fonsi Nieto:
“When we finished the test in Brno two weeks ago we were so happy because the bike was working so well. We got new parts to try but when we came here we had exactly the same problems as we did in Misano, with the bike being so hard to change direction through the slow corners. In the fast corners the bike works well, but when we have to stop and turn the bike it is not as easy to ride.”
Vittorio Iannuzzo“This test has been important for me because I needed to get some confidence in the dry conditions having only ridden it in Silverstone in the rain. In the first session of the test everything felt good on the bike. When we started to make some adjustments to enable us to go faster we started to have some problems. We were able to improve the handling of the bike but we lost some grip. In the end we found a solution and on race tyres our times were not so bad, but unfortunately the setting did not work with the qualifying tyre and I wasn’t able to improve my best time.”
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