Honda teams step up testing at Snetterton

Honda Racing and Padgetts Honda BSB teams braved the cold conditions at Snetterton yesterday as their pre-season testing programme intensified.

Both teams had a shakedown run at Cadwell last week, but the aim of Snetterton was to really start to working on different set-ups to develop their respective bikes further. 

Honda Racing’s Michael Laverty said: “Cadwell was a good shakedown and my preconceived ideas that the Honda would punch well off the turns but be a little more unstable into corners, were well proven. Today though, has been a chance to make the Honda feel a little more like my bike and improve the balance of the bike to suit me.”

Team-mate Jon Kirkham added: “The Honda feels so rideable, even without traction control. I’ve never once thought, ‘I could do with a bit of t/c to help me’. 

“We’ve both had bit of an issue with a front suspension sensor here today which gave us some strange readings, but we got that sorted towards the end of the day so we’re ready for tomorrow to try a lot more with the chassis.”

Padgetts Honda tested the bike in virtually the same spec at the previous Cadwell test but are planning to run the air-bleed system tomorrow to improve corner entry.

Ian Lowry said: “The bike was well set up from the first time I rode it at Cadwell. Clive (Padgett – team boss) has such experience with the Fireblade that everything was pretty much spot-on.

“But now, as we’re going faster, we’ve reached the stage where we need the air-bleed on to improve corner entry and help progress with the chassis set-up.”

Luca Scassa was having his first taste of the Snetterton circuit and agreed with Lowry. “We definitely need the air-bleed now so we can continue to work on chassis. We made quite a few changes today but then reached the point where we really need to improve our corner entry (with the air-bleed) to progress further.

“I also had to learn the circuit first. My only experience was a few laps with Ian in the car last Monday (when the planned test was aborted by bad weather).

“I like the layout. It’s relatively easy to learn but there are two or three corners, which are quite tricky. But it’s a lot of fun and I’ve enjoyed today.”