VAN DER MARK COMPLETES WINTER TESTING
The Pata Honda World Superbike team has completed its preparations for the 2015 World Superbike championship season with a two-day official test at Phillip Island ahead of this weekend’s opening round at the Australian track. Michael van der Mark has continued his acclimatization to the bigger CBR machine having stepped up to World Superbikes after winning last season’s World Supersport title on Honda’s CBR600RR. The 22-year-old Dutch ace continued work on base chassis and electronics settings and is looking forward to competing in his debut World Superbike event at the 4.445km Phillip Island this weekend (20-22 February).
Michael van der Mark (9th, 1m31.854s): “I’m really excited now because I love racing more than testing! I think everyone’s the same but we needed this test and I have a good feeling now. Most of the time for me has been making laps, and lap-by-lap I’ve improved. It’s quite difficult – everyone is really fast and I’m still learning, but that’s the way we have to do it. We’ve had two quite good days and tried a lot of things and we’ve seen which things work and which things don’t, so I’m looking forward to starting the race weekend.”
Pieter Breddels (technical co-ordinator): “Michael had a good test, especially this morning when he was quite fast. He couldn’t improve his time any more this afternoon so we’ll analyse the data to see why that was. We’ve got some work to do before the weekend, but we’re all looking forward to it.”