Honda Racing and Padgetts Honda were back on track today (Wednesday) as the teams continued their pre-season test schedule at Snetterton.

Both teams had a initial shakedown at Cadwell Park last week, but the aim of Snetterton was to really start 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 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 traction control 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 so we're ready for tomorrow to try a lot more with the chassis."


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

Ian Lowry told MCN:

"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."



Photo supplied by Impact Images.

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