Ruben Xaus smashed the lap record on the first day of official Superbike testing at Valencia in preparation for the third round of the HANNspree Superbike World Championship here on April 6th. Ducati Sterilgarda Go Eleven’s Spanish rider, a winner here last year, lapped in a time of 1m34.265s, the best performance ever by a Superbike on this track.
Second quickest today was Max Neukirchner who continued his good form on the Suzuki Alstare machine. The German was followed by Yukio Kagayama, back in action again in record time after breaking his collarbone in the opening round in Qatar in February. Another Spanish rider Carlos Checa was also up at the front on the new CBR RR of the HANNspree Ten Kate Honda team, posting fourth quickest time of 1m35.395s, ahead of Honda’s Ryuichi Kiyonari.
In excellent weather conditions (air 23°C, track 32°C), Régis Laconi made good progress for the Kawasaki PSG-1 Corse squad, the Frenchman setting fifth quickest time ahead of Checa’s team-mate Ryuichi Kiyonari.
In the afternoon session Ayrton Badovini (Kawasaki) had a harmless crash and Laconi finished off the track.
Ruben Xaus will not be taking part in tomorrow’s second and final day of testing.
Ducati Xerox (Bayliss-Fabrizio), Yamaha Italia (Corser-Haga) and Sterilgarda Go Eleven Ducati’s Max Biaggi are absent from the tests.
Times:
1. Xaus (Ducati) 1m34.265s
2. Kagayama (Suzuki) 1m35.368s
3. Checa (Honda) 1m35.395s
4. Kiyonari (Honda) 1m35.797s
5. Laconi (Kawasaki) 1m35.910s
6. Neukirchner (Suzuki) 1m35.946s
7. Lanzi (Ducati) 1m36.018s
8. Tamada (Kawasaki) 1m36.047s
9. Rolfo (Honda) 1m36.182s
10. Muggeridge (Honda) 1m36.211s
12. Badovini (Kawasaki) 1m36.853s
13. Nieto (Suzuki) 1m36.952s.
