The WFR Honda team are continuing their preparations for the 2012 MCE Insurance British Superbike Championship following a two day test at Guadix in Spain last weekend with a further two days scheduled on track later this week at Cartagena.

The team are yet to confirm their line up for the 2012 season, but as BSB Evo champion Glen Richards returned home to Australia for the winter break Graeme Gowland and James Westmoreland were back out on track in Spain. The team have been testing three different specification Hondas; Gowland's 2011 Evo machine and two bikes running a 2011 chassis with two different engine specifications.

Gowland said:

"It felt great to be back out testing already and we have done laps on both my bike from this season and then the ones running the new spec engine. The change in the rules for next season means that you get slightly more power and I think that is what I have noticed the most so far. We are definitely having some fun riding the new spec bike and we did a lot of laps at Guadix. I think now moving on to Cartagena that we can make some more improvements and finish the tests feeling we have made changes for the better. I am looking forward to Cartagena now and making the WFR Honda even stronger."

Westmoreland said:

"It was a good first two days on track and having done a lot of laps it was fairly tough as we had such a lot to test. I did three meetings on the WFR Honda at the end of last season and I did the best job I could, however whilst we have been testing we have been able to make me feel even more comfortable on the bike. It is great to be testing the new spec bike for next year and to see the difference between them. There are some variations that we haven't been able to run this season in Evo that we can for next year and it has been mega to have so much time on track. We want to leave the test knowing we have improved the bike and we are definitely heading in the right direction."


Team Owner Myles Scofield concluded:

"We have already completed two days on track at Guadix over the weekend and now the team are heading to Cartagena for the final two days of this test. We have tested the three different bikes and we have used this year's Evo specification bike as a benchmark and then we have worked on various areas including chassis, swingarms, linkages and we have also been running the 2012 Motec system with the new parameters for next year's championship. We have had two good days on track and both riders were able to complete a significant number of laps. The first morning we had to wait a little for the track to dry but James completed around 130 laps and Graeme around 90 and so we have had some good feedback. We can now take what we have learnt here and translate it from Guadix to Cartagena. We have more focus on the suspension at the end of this week and I am sure we can have another two positive days on track.

"For us we want to get as much of an advantage as we can now. We have come out to Spain earlier than before but we have work to do to be ready for next season as we want to build on our Evo championship win with the overall title win now. We are yet to confirm our line up for next season but we expect that this will come soon."

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