Swan Yamaha boosted by Spanish test progress

Reigning MCE Insurance British Superbike champion Tommy Hill has completed his Spanish pre-season test ahead of schedule in Almeria as the Swan Yamaha rider now returns to the UK to evaluate the work the team have completed.

Japanese ace Noriyuki Haga was feeling happier today (Monday) after making changes to the rear suspension and he will now have one final session at the circuit tomorrow to finally analyse the setting.

The Swan Yamaha pairing have completed three days on track at Cartagena before moving to Almeria today, however Hill and the team felt confident that the work they have done on fuelling and the chassis already was enough to return to the UK ahead of their next British-based test.

‘Samurai of Slide’ Haga had been working on an optimum rear suspension setting at Cartagena last week and today he believes he has made a big improvement.

He will now use an hour session tomorrow to test the setting before he prepares to make his UK debut with the team later this month. 

Hill said: “We have decided to just have one day at Almeria and call it a day now as we are happy with the progress we have made. We have been working again today on the fuelling and we have got it working really well.

“The Swan Yamaha team have been fantastic and we have just tried to stick to the basics and then get the bike and chassis working as best we can; we have done some good work and moved forward massively on the fuelling and we are running a good pace.

“We are now ready to get back the UK and crack on for the British test ready for Brands Hatch.

“I feel I am ready to race now; like I said before I never like to count my chickens too early but testing has been fantastic. I am not sure what times everyone else has been doing but as far as we can see and from what we have we have been setting the pace.

“It has been another great day here and when we get back to the UK the team can look at the data and I will do a full report so we are ready for the next tests so we are ready to rock and roll at Brands Hatch. A big thanks again has to go to the Swan Yamaha team for all their hard work.”

Haga said: “I am happy with today’s test, we have found a positive direction for the rear suspension setting and tomorrow we will try to use that. We only have an hour, so a limited amount of time tomorrow, but I hope that we can use it successfully so we can see the difference.

“I have one problem at the moment and I know my chief engineer ‘Mr Super Simon’ (Green) will find the best setting for me.”