Official Misano Test Proves Popular With SBK Regulars
Top World Superbike and Superstock teams will gather on the Adriatic coast of Italy for the second official SBK test of the 2006 racing season.
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 Top World Superbike and Superstock teams will gather on the Adriatic coast of Italy for the second official SBK test of the 2006 racing season. With the Misano round itself scheduled for June 25, the Pirelli development teams in the series will be trying out possible new solutions, while the rest of an impressive line-up of riding talent will be preparing machines and race set-ups in readiness for the midsummer festival of power that is the Misano race weekend. The circuit itself, largely tight and twisty, nonetheless features the immense triple left-hand turns of Curvone, where riders accelerate while they negotiate three increasingly fast left hand corners, catapulting them onto the back straight, before hard braking returns them to the dizzying turns and chicanes of the main infield. Only one of the regular top teams is missing from the provisional list of entries to the Misano test, the Winston Honda Ten Kate Honda squad of Karl Muggeridge and James Toseland. Muggeridge broke two vertebrae at a recent Valencia official test, contributing to the team’s decision not to compete at this stage. Despite these two high profile omissions, championship leader Troy Bayliss (Ducati Xerox) and reigning champion Troy Corser (Alstare Suzuki Corona Extra) will be duking it out with another 24 riders at the Misano tests, fighting not just to set ego-building single lap times, but also to find a perfect set-up for the race itself in June. Corser’s team-mate, Yukio Kagayama, and Bayliss’s constant companion in the factory Ducati garage, Lorenzo Lanzi, have already shown glimpses of the form that made them both race winners in the 2005 season. Each is a fan of Misano, but like most of their peers, they expect little but hard work and challenges to overcome in testing. With so many strong entries in the championship in 2006, not even riders of this calibre can automatically expect to finish up with a time inside the top 15, should one aspect of machine set-up be even slightly off. A rider with only four World Superbike races under his belt, yet with podiums already firmly chalked up, is Alex Barros. The lone Klaffi Honda rider will be on hand at Misano to reacquaint himself with a circuit modified from that which he last raced on several years ago. Italy is the home nation for Andrew Pitt and Noriyuki Haga’s Yamaha Motor Italia squad, and Misano will be home-from-home for each rider. With podiums already taken by each, every test is now seen as preparation for the first Yamaha 2006 season win. For the Yamaha Motor France IPONE squad, Misano will be another chance to work through their never-ending cycle of development, as Norick Abe, Sebastien Gimbert and Shinichi Nakatomi prepare themselves for two days of hard graft. A virtual kingdom of Ducati twin-cylinder machinery will back up the efforts of Bayliss and Lanzi at the Misano tests, with Valencia sensation Ruben Xaus (Sterilgarda Berik Ducati) proving to be fully competitive in the recent Valencia tests, on his 2005 spec machine. Ex MotoGP rider Roberto Rolfo (Ducati SC Caracchi) and Marco Borciani (Sterilgarda Berik Ducati) also lead the vanguard of almost ten Ducati riders in the series. Max Neukirchner (Pedercini Ducati) did not enjoy the recent Valencia tests, but hopes that Misano will see him get to grips with the change to Ducati machinery this season. The quickest Kawasaki rider on show thus far is Fonsi Nieto (Team PSG-1 Kawasaki Corse), but in a three man team jam-packed with talent and ever-improving machinery, competition for supremacy is fierce in the PSG-1 Kawasaki Corse camp. 2004 season runner-up Regis Laconi and perennial Superbike threat Chris Walker expect to work through as much material for the ZX-10R as they did at Valencia. Franco Battaini will once more be in attendance in his rookie season in Superbike, riding another local variety of Kawasaki, from the Bertocchi team. Steve Martin blew away the onlookers at Valencia with a fifth fastest time in the Spanish tests, howling his unique Petronas triple above its 900cc envelope of performance. At another twisty track, Martin may once more fancy his chances of a strong top ten ride, while his new partner, Craig Jones, learns the ropes in his rookie SBK season. Other riders to take particular notice of include Fabien Foret, on a privately entered Alstare Engineering Suzuki GSX-R, and Pedercini Ducati rider Ivan Clementi, normally fast on home soil. SUPERSPORT WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP Reigning World Champion Sebastien Charpentier (Winston Ten Kate Honda) may be missing from the Misano line up, but most teams will make it to the tests, including perennial WSS challenger, Kevin Curtain (Yamaha Motor Germany) and his team-mate Broc Parkes. Young and quick, Yoann Tiberio makes a perfect partner for the vastly experienced Katsuaki Fujiwara in the Megabike Honda squad, with Christian Zaiser, from Austria, proving to be the best of the Ducati 749 riders thus far.
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