Airwaves Yamaha opt out of European test
Added on Tuesday, March 24th, 2009 by Carole Nash Editor
Airwaves Yamaha opt out of European test
GSE Racing have decided not to take part in any pre-season European testing with the Airwaves Yamaha team after looking at the performance of the Yamaha World Superbikes so far this season.
GSE Racing, who last year ran with Ducati’s as they swept to the BSB constructor’s championship, have opted out of any testing ahead of the 2009 British Superbikes season as they believe that the performances of Ben Spies and Tom Sykes in the opening two rounds of the World Superbikes Championship is proof that the new Yamaha R1 is competitive enough to challenge in BSB.
Airwaves Yamaha will run two R1s with an identical specification to those used by their WSB colleagues this year and, with the BSB machines still reportedly being put together in Italy, GSE Racing have cancelled their planned six-day European test session.
“GSE Racing has worked closely with the Yamaha World Superbike team over the winter to develop and build the all new YZF-R1,” the team said in a statement.
“After reviewing the substantial amount of test and race data generated by the Yamaha World Superbike team during this period, GSE Racing made the decision to delay their full testing programme until after the opening round.”
Commenting on the decision, team manager Colin Wright said: ‘It is our intention to test in the UK prior to the first round at Brands Hatch, GSE Racing is fortunate that our partnership with Yamaha Motor UK has allowed us access to the data of the Yamaha World Superbike Team.
“Following the on track success of the YZF-R1 and after reviewing the data, we took the decision to concentrate on preparing our race bike to the same spec as the factory team, their bike seems to be reasonably competitive!”
