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Team Virgin Mobile Aiwa powered by Yamaha finished the first and final group test for British Superbike contenders with a flourish today at Silverstone.
As the track temperature rose around the wind-swept, high-speed circuit the lap times fell and it was down to the 2002 pairing of Simon Crafar and Steve Plater to fine-tune the all-new Yamaha R1s that they will be competing on this year.
Both Steve and Simon spent the first of the two 45 minute long sessions getting to grips with the technical circuit – for Simon the trip to Silverstone was a wholly-new experience while Steve had to reacquaint himself with the circuit he last raced at a year ago.
While the threatened rain thankfully held off for the morning, the track remained slippery and dirty in parts, which meant that quick times and radical machine settings were not possible early on.
Come the afternoon sessions though and with conditions improving the riders could really get down to the job of setting up the machines for the coming race at Silverstone in 11 days time.
Because both riders were concentrating on set-up and not chasing fast, one-off laps the sessions were broken up into smaller sections while each worked on different aspects of the bike.
Speaking after the final session Simon said: ‘That was a real experience. I have never ridden a track that is so bumpy in my life before!
‘It was good to come here and get some miles under our belts, it helped us a lot to be able to see the new Yamaha R1 in action at this circuit before we come to race here on April 1.
‘Working our way through the sessions helped us target some problems that appeared through the day. I was chasing front-end feel for a while and now I am 100 per cent sure that we will be able to dial that out with a different suspension set-up.
‘I was also chasing a little stability problem. We changed some things on the bike and hopefully we have it sorted now. I really feel it’s been a very valuable test because it has allowed us to get these problems out of the way before the race weekend – and that’s what the test sessions are all about.’
Steve added: ‘I am a lot happier at the end of today. It was a shame that we could only get a couple of sessions in the preview tests because I really found a rhythm on the R1 at the end of the day.
‘I have managed to isolate one handling problem I had with the bike and the team and I have worked really hard to dial it out of the set-up. As the speed built up during the tests I was finding a small problem firing the bike out of turns – the handlebars wanted to walk from side to side a little.
‘It has been a very good test day though. For the first time at the end of a test I can say that I am confident with the new bike. I am confident and know that the bike is working for me instead of me ending up being scared of all that power!’
Team Boss Rob McElnea said: ‘It was good to come here and see what the rest of the teams in the championship have been doing.
‘Plus in this test, as a preview to the season, we have some very genuine data to be able to use and work on. It is always true in racing, but even more so for us this year with a completely new bike, but until we start pushing the bikes as hard as we have been here we don’t know what problems will appear at the very edge of the performance envelope.
