ALTHEA DUCATI:

Carlos Checa and Shakey Byrne have today concluded the tests taking place at the Autodromo Internacional do Algarve near Portimao in Portugal. After yesterday’s rain, the track was still very wet for the morning practice but the sun came out mid-session and on a dry track Byrne was able to finish twenty eight laps with a best lap time of 1,44,527. Teammate Checa finished twenty two laps and his best time was 1,44,599. The afternoon session took place on a sunny and dry race track. Both riders worked through electronic and chassis settings on their Ducati 1198 superbikes, showing their growing improvement with every outing. Byrne scored an excellent third position (1,42,887) while Checa ended in eleventh place (1,43,629). The Althea Racing team now move on to Valencia in Spain for two more test days on 27th and 28th January, to take the next steps in the development of the bikes.

Carlos Checa :”It was good to be here and get more time on the bike and work with the team. We worked on some settings over the test we got to try a few things with the bike and made a big step up. Unfortunately the weather didn’t allow us to get more. Unfortunately this afternoon I was not able to take any advantage from the soft tyre. Anyway we’re continuing to improve and I’m confident for the incoming season. The team have been great and we’re working really well together. Now I’m looking forward to getting to Valencia for two more days of testing ”.

Shane Byrne :”I think that all my team done a very good job this weekend and I want to thank Genesio Bevilacqua for his great work and also Ducati, because they gave us a really strong bike. It has been hard work and I was surprised to see how difficult it was to go fast with this bike. I started the test with exactly the same setting from my race bike from last year so the bike should be easy for me to ride, but the electronics of my 1198 are really very advanced and it took all Friday and today’s test to make the most from my Ducati. I think I learned more in these test than in all last year. It has been a very good test and I’m very happy with the team and I hope to continue to work like this for all the season and now I look forward to the next test in Valencia“.

Genesio Bevilacqua – Team General Manager :”As a first test, I think it went really well. We didn’t have any problems and both riders did a very good job and so I’m very satisfied with how the test has gone. We didn’t test as much as we would have liked to here, but in the end our riders performed brilliantly and worked well with the team. I would like to thank all our technicians for their big effort and also Ducati who put our team in the condition to reach these good results. There’s still stuff we have to fix, but considering we have a new bike and new riders we are pretty satisfied and confident. For sure we will have more performance from the bike next week at the Valencia test”.