A final three day pre-season test for the PSG-1 Kawasaki Corse team culminated at the 5.380km circuit of Losail in Qatar today, with Makoto Tamada and Régis Laconi continuing to work towards an ideal set-up to take forward to the first round of the championship, in just over one week’s time. Despite a delay to the start of this test, when a few of the team’s latest specification engines were damaged in transit to the circuit, useful information was gained by the team, even with a reduced quota of laps available to each rider.
Final preparations for the first races of the season are now being undertaken at the team's headquarters, based on the information gathered from these most recent tests. Final mapping for the new electronics system and set-up adjustments for 2008 spec race tyres will be the first priorities when the team returns to Qatar, as the PSG-1 Kawasaki Corse team conducted this test using off the shelf Pirelli tyres only.
There was no official timekeeping in place at this test but Tamada was credited with a best lap of 2’00.4, with Laconi on 2’01.7. Tamada got closer to his ideal race set-up than Laconi on the final day, and also found a solution to the ‘chatter’ that had affected his earlier showings.
On Saturday February 23 the new 15-round/30 race season begins, and both Laconi and Tamada are keen to get strong early scores in when the action starts for real.
Régis Laconi:“We did as much work as we could at these tests, but we could not complete all the laps we wanted to over the three days. The work we did was in a good direction and we know the bike has a lot more to give. So we still have things to do when we get back to Qatar for the race, particularly with the new electronics system. We will be ready to go when race day arrives, that is for sure.”
