Westmoreland competes shakedown at home circuit

James Westmoreland has completed his first test of 2014 for the Buildbase BMW team, taking to the track at Mallory Park, the circuit now co-managed by team boss Stuart Hicken, to shake down the team’s BMW S1000RRs.

Westmoreland was the sole rider to ride at the test for the team, with the squad’s other rider, three times BSB champion Ryuichi Kiyonari, delayed returning to the UK because of visa problems. The Japanese rider is expected to return laster this week, before travelling with the team to test in Spain.

Westmoreland said: “It definitely felt good to be back out on the bike again and as it was our first test of the season and the biggest thing was to get back up to speed after not riding a race bike since last year. This morning we lost some track time due to fog but my initial feeling was how different it felt after riding the motocross bike during the winter but after one session it was like I had never been off it!”

“We started work straight away really as we had the new 17” Pirellis to test and the changes that came with those; we got dialled in pretty much straight away. We had a benchmark of the times we set at the test we had before Donington Park last year and we were a tenth away from that, so with this being the first time out this season we were straight back into it.”

“The bike is very similar to how we ended last season but we know the areas where we need to improve before Brands Hatch, but to know we were that close already to last year was better than we expected straight off today so I am pretty chuffed with that.”