Team Suzuki Press Office – April 22.
The Bennetts Suzuki team has completed a successful test at Oulton Park, ahead of the MCE British Superbike round at the Cheshire circuit next weekend.
Both Tommy Bridewell and Ryuichi Kiyonari used the test to develop various elements of their GSX-R1000s and tried a number of different set-up options and components, including different linkages, geometry settings, as well as varying electronics strategies.
However, both riders also had one eye on the forthcoming race meeting at the circuit and began working on a setting that will stand them in good stead when the season continues.
Tommy Bridewell:
“Today's not been too bad at all. We've made some good progress with the bike and dialled-out some of the little issues we discovered at Silverstone. We spent most of the day trying to fine-tune the base setting and played around with the balance of the bike and also tried some different things. I felt comfortable, and towards the end of the day we started working on a race setting. We made a big change for the last 10 minutes and it felt really good. Sadly it was only for 10 minutes, but we'll explore that again when we're back next week. We're quite happy with our race-pace at the moment, we'll keep working in free practice to improve things further; and I'm looking forward to cracking on from round two.”
Ryuichi Kiyonari:
“We have worked hard today to try lots of things with the bike; lots of different changes to the set-up and different components. We have raised the rear of the bike, and this seems to have worked well for me and also for Tommy, so we are moving in the right direction with everything that we try and have improved the bike's base-setting. I'm now excited to come back here and race.”
Martin Halsall - Team Owner:
Today's been good for us. We've come here and treated it like a test and not a time-attack, but despite that, our pace has been good with Kiyo and Tommy at the right end of the timing screens during the sessions. We've made progress with some of the chatter issues we had at Silverstone. We've also focussed a bit on the round here in a week's time. Everyone is working hard and is now looking forward to coming back to go racing.”