Crescent Suzuki test at Calafat

Crescent Suzuki continue to steal a march on their British Superbike rivals.

While most of the teams continue to labour in the workshops, building new bikes, the Verwood-based  team have  just completed a successful two days of testing with Sylvain Guintoli on the 2009 Suzuki GSX-R100.

MCN spoke to team boss Jack Valentine late last night for his reaction on the test.
“It’s been a good test,” he said, “Sylvain has been fast and comfortable on the new bike, considering he’s never been to Calafat before.

“That was good because it’s very much a British-style track with several stop-start corners and he’s not really ridden that type of undulating course before.

“We tried two different engine specs and Sylvain preferred the softer version with gave  more mid-range but there’s no reason we couldn’t get the more aggressive engine to work in a similar way by using the electronics

“We’re a little frustrated because we had two brilliant days where we got all the testing done we had planned but then the winds got up to the point there was a force ten gale off the coast so we didn’t turn a wheel on the third and final day..

“We had planned a full race simulation (to gauge how the bike worked once the initial grip had been lost) and then we were going to throw tyres at the bike to see just how fast Sylvain could lap – but he was bloody fast on the previous two days anyway.”

Valentine wouldn’t discuss lap times from the previous two days but added: “Sylvain’s done a really good job, as have the rest of the team. It’s amazing really, we’ve achieved more in two days of testing here than we did in six days, this time last year testing in Spain.

“We came out of the workshop with a good base setting. Although this year’s chassis is different (shorter engine, longer swing-arm), Les (Pearson – chief technician) used the data and his experience from our 2008 bike to calculate the starting point for the 2009 bike.

“Apart from Sylvain making some small changes like the seat position, we only had to make some minor chassis changes.”

The GSX-R1000 that Gunitoli tested is still very much in the early stages of development  

Valentine said: “The changes Suzuki has made to the new K(have really helped with improving rear grip but we’re still running with a stock swing-arm and linkages we made in-house.

“The factory parts are due to arrive any day now. And we’re using a very modified fairing, even the air tubes are not quite right so we think there’s more to come from aerodynamics too.

“We tried different things then put all the good settings into one package for the last day, which is why we were a bit frustrated we never got the chance to fly on the final day.

“The positive note is that we’re not chasing a set-up and we’re all looking forward to getting on track with some of the other BSB teams in Almeria and Guadix in March to see how we compare.”