Michael Rutter and Martin Jessopp completed their first major pre-season test at Cartagena and Guadix in Spain on the Riders Ducati's they will race in MCE British Superbike Championship this year
The team were concentrating on developing their engine management strategies and were running updated 2009 engines at the test but have brand new 2010-spec engines ready for the first race at Brands Hatch on Easter Bank Holiday Monday on April 5.
Rutter said: “I’m well happy with the tests. Having raced these bikes at the end of last year, I knew we had a good set-up with the Ducati chassis but with changes we’ve made to the engines over the winter we now have 10bhp more across the range so it was a case of re-mapping the electronics here and working on the traction control system. We had a range of maps to try and everything went to plan.
“I’ve been trying to get my head around being able to nail the throttle coming out of the corners and let the electronics take care of any big slides. After a career spent relying totally on feel, it’s a very different method and takes times to adapt. We decided that the best way was to run a tyre which had lost the best of its grip. If we’d tried to do the same on new tyres, the extra grip might well have caused me problems. But after seven days of testing I’m finally getting used to it and looking forward to the first race.
Team-mate Jessopp was delighted to be back on a Ducati after two seasons in BSB on a four-cylinder. Prior to that he raced the Italian V-twins in British Supersport.
He said: “It feels like I’m back home again. At least the four-cylinder bike I raced had the same basic Magneti Marelli electronics package, so I was already used to riding with a well-sorted traction control system.
“I remember how much learning it took to get used to the four-cylinder bike but it’s taken no time at all to get back into riding a Ducati. I’m still braking too late and scrubbing too much speed but it’s coming. It’s amazing how much more corner speed you can run on a Ducati.”
Team owner Phil Jessopp was delighted with the test. He said: “We’ve learned so much from the seven days here. We’ve got a good understanding of how the bike works and the team has gelled well. Now we can go back to the workshop, analyse our data and get ready for the first round at Brands Hatch.
