Leon Camier was the fastest man on day two of testing at Phillip Island as preparations for the 2013 Superbike World Championship continued apace. The Fixi Crescent Suzuki rider outpaced Sylvain Guintoli, Jonathan Rea, Marco Melandri and Michel Fabrizio and looked set to go even faster before crashing on his last lap of the day.
The Ashford rider remains optimistic that the GSX-R1000 will be a competitive package this year and looks forward to getting back out on track when official testing starts on Monday.
“The day started off really well and we got down to some good times. The bike felt really comfortable, we improved it a little bit chassis wise and the electronics are slowly getting better. We also did a race run, I was not really pushing it, but just trying to be comfortable and the keep the lap-times consistent. We can still improve the race pace and I think I can do a bit of that through my riding. At the end of the day we had a massive crash when I was pushing for a really fast lap – I just got caught out by the wind. The bike was absolutely totalled, so the boys have got a lot of work to do tonight! Hopefully we’ll be back up to speed as soon as we get back on track on Monday.”
Teammate Jules Cluzel sat the day out after his crashes yesterday but Team Manager Paul Denning has confirmed he’ll be able to ride on Monday although he won’t be putting any pressure on his rider.
“Jules was operated on by renowned plastic surgeon Dr. Michael Weymouth today and he’ll be able to ride – even if he is a little bit restricted in his movement – in the Official Test on Monday. As a rookie to the Superbike class it’s not good to lose a full day of testing, but he showed huge speed – maybe a bit too much speed – yesterday and we will approach the test next week very calmly and in a step-by-step manner to re-build his confidence. We all have to make sure that we remember that the championship is 15-rounds long and it doesn’t all hinge on what Jules does here at Phillip Island next weekend.”
“Leon tested alone today and was absolutely flying all day. The bike is working well, the 2013 engine which we’ve developed with Yoshimura is in a different league to what we had here last year, and the whole package appears to be properly competitive. Leon’s 31.2 best lap was impressive, but more important for the team was the superb data we gathered from the race simulation run, in-which Leon kept the times all within the 32-second bracket. Phillip Island is so tough on rear tyres, so the consistency bodes well for the race weekend. The huge crash at over 200kmh at the final corner could have put a big dampener on an otherwise positive test, but the sight of Leon up on his feet and basically ok, except for a few bumps and bruises, was a huge relief. We can replace the metal and the carbon fibre, but we can’t replace Leon!”
