Martin on song for FPR at Valencia
 Steve
Martin produced superb form on the final day of the Superbike
World Championship official test at Valencia, Spain, to finish
the three days as the fifth fastest rider.
The Australian hacked a further second off yesterday’s
best time with a stunning lap of 1:35.178, two seconds quicker
than his time on qualifiers at last year’s race. And
he was then fourth fastest in today’s afternoon session
with a time of 1:35.7, set on race tyres, and behind only
Troy Corser, Nori Haga and Troy Bayliss, even though a high-side
crash, from which he emerged unscathed, ended that session
prematurely.
Team-mate Craig Jones also continued to make encouraging
progress and was 24th fastest in a windy final session, having
made significant in-roads into yesterday’s lap times.
Bayliss had earlier broken the lap record with a time of
1:33.758, while Karl Muggeridge was a casualty when he suffered
a fractured vertebrae in a bizarre crash on entering pit-lane.
Team manager Jack Valentine said: “This
has been an excellent day and it’s very motivating to
have made massive steps forward again with the chassis. We
keep on managing to find something extra out of it. Steve’s
riding was awesome and it’s so good to be able to set
those times at a circuit where we have struggled recently.
Craig has continued to make progress. He is now not far behind
some of the big name riders and he will continue to improve.”
Steve said: “Today was a good day.
We made some more chassis changes, to the steering head and
swing arm angles, to help stop the bike wheelying out of corners.
The conditions in the afternoon were not fantastic, yet I
went faster every time I went out in that session. Unfortunately
I crashed and just have to put that down to one of those things
that happens when you are pushing the limits. But I am happy
that I came away with a decent set-up for the race at the
end of next month and we are heading in the right direction
going into the next test at Misano.”
Craig said: “I managed to improve
my times from yesterday this morning before we had a few things
go wrong with the bike. Then conditions didn’t enable
me to go quicker in the afternoon session, which was a shame.
But I have regained my confidence on the bike, so there are
positives to take away from here. I am a lot more comfortable
on the bike and, if I can get it turning a bit better, hopefully
the speed will come.”
Final times, Superbike World Championship official
test, Valencia, Spain: 1 Bayliss 1:33.758; 2 Xaus
1:34.659; 3 Lanzi 1:34.848; 4 Corser 1:34.993; 5 Martin (Foggy
PETRONAS Racing) 1:35.178; 6 Haga 1:35.295; 7 Nieto 1:35.377;
8 Pitt 1:35.423; 9 Fabrizio 1:35.437; 10 Kagayama 1:35.538;
28 Jones (Foggy PETRONAS Racing) 1:38.020
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