FIXI Crescent Suzuki has completed a successful and positive two-day test at Aragon in Spain that will stand it in good stead when the World Superbike Championship visits the circuit for the eighth round of the season later this month.
Leon Camier and John Hopkins put in a lot of hard work in Wednesday's hot conditions, after the sun had burnt off the clouds that covered the 5,344m track and by mid-morning the Motorland Aragon circuit was surrounded by blue skies. The pair got down to some intensive testing as the team made up for the amount of time lost on day-one, due to some very inclement weather, that hampered any serious attempts to make any in-roads into the test schedule the team had prepared for the two-days.
Camier, Hopkins and the whole FIXI Crescent Suzuki squad left the Spanish track in a positive frame of mind after recording many laps and concentrating on getting a good base setting for Yoshimura-powered Suzuki GSX-R in readiness for the next round of the championship. Hopkins also made valuable use of the time available to learn the difficult Aragon circuit, on what was his first visit to the track and is now looking forward to the next race with a renewed confidence.
FIXI Crescent Suzuki will now return to its race headquarters and asses the data from the test before it returns to the Motorland Aragon next week to begin preparations for the race that is scheduled for Sunday 1st July.
Leon Camier:
"We lost a lot of time on Tuesday because of the weather, which is a shame really as there were a lot of things we wanted to try away from the pressure of a race weekend. On day two we tried different settings on the FIXI Crescent Suzuki's engine and electronics and so didn't really go for any fast lap-times, but we did manage to collect a lot of useful data. Now we'll go away, analyse it all and come back with some new ideas. Obviously, with more track time we would've made more progress, but at least we got loads of info today and that'll help us next time out - back here in Aragon in a few days time."
John Hopkins:
"It was a pity we lost a lot of time on the first day, but I feel we more than made up for it when conditions improved on day two. I managed a good number of laps and we improved the base setting of the FIXI Crescent Suzuki at the same time. This track is not easy and there are a lot of blind approaches and changes of elevation, so you need to learn it first. I like it a lot and it's really fun to ride - once you know where you are going! I'm feeling loads better and I'm really starting to enjoy myself on the bike again - and my confidence is coming back as well. Although there are few places here where more horsepower would be useful, I think this circuit is going to suit our GSX-R and we'll be able to use the fast, flowing corners to our advantage. I'm really looking forward to the races here and feeling very positive about the results."
Jack Valentine - Team Manager:
"It's always a bit of a problem when you lose so much time because of the weather, but nonetheless we managed to do a lot of good work and that will stand us in good stead for the race. We tried out a few things to do with the engine and the electronics and got some positive info to work on next week. It's really good to see John growing in confidence and looking like his old self again. Both he and Leon are pretty happy with their race set-ups and if they can qualify well, there's no reason why we cannot get positive results in Aragon."
