The Red Bull Honda World Superbike Team successfully completed their first pre-season test of 2018 at the Circuito de Jerez in Spain.
The team’s riders for the upcoming WorldSBK season, Kent’s Leon Camier and Jake Gagne both impressed on the Honda CBR1000RR Fireblade SP2 with Camier ultimately posting the fourth quickest time with a 1’39.608.
The two day test at the 4.4 kilometre Circuito de Jerez not only provided the opportunity for the riders to get reacquainted with their CBR1000RR Fireblade SP2 machines, but also undertake a full test programme with chassis components, electronic settings and a new exhaust system from Akrapovič being evaluated.
The comprehensive testing yielded positive results with the team not only able to find improved performance over a single lap, but also more consistent pace was found during race simulations.
While Camier was among the quickest riders over the two days and continued to provide valuable feedback to the team, his American stablemate Gagne also impressed on what was his first chance to ride the circuit on the CBR1000RR Fireblade SP2.
Gagne took to the task at hand with determination, clocking over 150 laps and slashing over a second from his best lap time from the opening day to the second day of the test, ending up with a personal best of 1’41.200.
Having enjoyed a good test, Camier was pleased with how things were progressing:
“I’m really happy with how this test went, we’ve made some good progress and I’m learning the bike more and more. There’s still a lot I’d like to work on at the next test in Portimão and I think as I ride this bike on different tracks I’ll be able to get even more out of our package.”
“I’m looking forward to doing more long runs in the upcoming tests as this will help me understand how the bike will behave over race distance, but all in all I’ve learned a lot over the last two days, I’m feeling good and am a lot more comfortable on the Fireblade and now we just need to keep up the good work at the upcoming tests.
The team now looks ahead to their second pre-season test of 2018 at Portimao which takes place on January 28-29.