East Coast Racing got their pre season testing schedule underway last week spending three days at Cartagena and one day at Guadix in Spain. The two riders Gary Johnson and Lee Johnston both enjoyed a very successful outing on the new East Coast Racing Honda's and both were on good pace and getting to grips with their new bikes.

The pairing tested a number of different aspects on their machines and completed several laps to get a good feel of the bike and prepared for the opening round of the Fuchs-Silkolene British Supersport Championship at Brands Hatch on Easter Weekend.

Gary Johnson was also testing out the bikes he will be riding on the roads and therefore had to cram in as much as possible in the four days to get each bike set up as well as possible to suit his riding style.

He said "All in all I'm really pleased with the test and how productive it was for us all. I was riding the 600 and the Superbike and getting both bikes set up to a comfy base setting, which we'll be working on in more tests before the season starts. I know now where we need to go with the bikes and confident the team will get them to that position where everything will be perfect come the start of the season.

We concentrated mainly on the 600 as this is the bike I will be running in the British Supersport Championship, from the off the bike felt great. We changed a number of things on the Honda with springs, suspension and tyres to see which worked best for me. We have definitely got something to work from now and going in the right direction.

I did a few runs out on the Superbike, the Fireblade is an awesome bike and the power is immense on it. My times improved every time we made small changes which is great news and I feel confident about everything now.

I was happy at the end of Cartagena and was looking forward to getting myself out at Guadix. My crew chief James made a few changes after I'd done a few initial laps and these automatically took my times down on the 600, it's all a learning curve for all of us and testing is all about finding the right set up.

I jumped back on the Fireblade and was testing a new Pirelli tyre which I'll be using on the roads but this forced us to make some changes with the bike. I was able to stay with the Suzuki riders of Kirkham and Hopkins so it gave me a lot of confidence. The second planned day at Guadix, the heavens opened and track activity was called off for the day so homeward bound we headed. I'm really happy with the progress we made and I know where we have to go but I'm very excited about it all. I can't wait for the season to start now and get things going again."

Second rider, young Irish star Lee Johnston enjoyed four strong days of testing and bonded with the Honda instantly and set some very positive lap times over the test, he was very pleased with it all saying:-

"Testing was mega at Cartagena, the weather was kind to us and stayed dry for the three days, even though it was a little on the windy side. We spent the majority of the first day just making me comfortable on the CBR 600 as this was the first time I'd even sat on the bike. It felt good instantly so I knew we wouldn't need to change much on it. We knew the bikes were good as Sam won the Championship on it in 2010 so we didn't want to change much to start with.

The second day proved to be challenging as there were a number of crashes which kept putting halt to proceedings and the third day we spent working on the forks and my times were coming down each time I went out on track which has given me my confidence back after a couple of dodgy years.

We then headed to Guadix where I managed to complete 70 laps on the first afternoon and I managed to get a really good feel for the bike. The second day they weather turned a little more like what I'm used to back in Ireland, the track was flooded and therefore the day was cancelled. I would like to thank all the East Coast Racing team for making me feel so welcome and working so hard over the few days, I just can't wait for Brands now."