MCE Ducati Conclude Testing In Positive Mood
Eight times champions, the MCE Ducati British Superbike Championship Team completed their preparation for the upcoming 2022 Bennetts British Superbike Championship with a successful final test at Silverstone this week.
With last Thursday’s planned outing at Donington Park eventually aborted due to the bad weather, hopes were higher for both Josh Brookes and Tom Sykes to get some good laps in aboard the Lake District team’s factory supported PBM Ducati Panigale V4Rs.
However, cool temperatures interspersed with rain showers once again affected their progress over the two days and didn’t allow as much track time as they would have liked leaving Australian double BSB champion Brookes in 14th place and Yorkshireman Sykes, who won the World Superbike Championship in 2013, down in 19th overall.
Brookes was consistently inside the top six for most of the sessions with Sykes returning to a track he’s not raced on for many years, gathering important data in readiness for next weekend’s opening round at Silverstone which gets underway on Good Friday.
Josh Brookes: “It was a fairly productive test despite the weather being difficult with rain and gusty winds at times. But it’s been the same for everyone and from our side, we’ve done a lot of work with various settings and combinations. Silverstone has always been tricky for our bike, but last year, Silverstone was a good round for us. We’ve struggled in the last sector of the track in the past so that’s an area we’ve concentrated on this week and now the bike is working as good as it ever has. So everything is positive going into the race weekend over Easter, it’s just a case of seeing what the weather will do but I’m ready to rock.”
Tom Sykes: “I came here in good spirits after a positive test at Snetterton and found how the Ducati works so came here excited to continue that work. The start of yesterday didn’t go to plan, but I was going about my business and finding where the bike was working and where we needed to improve. The guys have made some small tweaks to the bike with the information since Snetterton, so everything is definitely heading in the right direction. The cold temperatures and really gusty wind meant I didn’t take the best from the bike or myself today but found some more information in preparation for next week.”
John Mowatt, Team Co-Ordinator: “Traditionally, Silverstone isn’t our best track, but we knew which areas we needed to improve on, and we are confident that we now have what we need to be competitive next weekend. Josh chipped away in all the sessions and was only a fraction off the lap record whereas Tom, despite a slip off, methodically worked his way through lots of stuff to get a good load of data which will be important come the races. We will go back to the workshop and analyse the information and we fully expect to come out of the blocks fighting as it’s our intention to win back the title we lost after two years last season.”
Bennetts British Superbike Championship, Silverstone, Official Test, combined times:
1. Tommy Bridewell (Oxford Products Racing Ducati) 53.627s
2. Rory Skinner (FS-3 Racing Kawasaki) +0.103s
3. Kyle Ryde (Rich Energy OMG Racing Yamaha) +0.168s
4. Bradley Ray (Rich Energy OMG Racing Yamaha) +0.172s
5. Glenn Irwin (Honda Racing UK) +0.202s
14. Josh Brookes (MCE Ducati) +0.656s
19. Tom Sykes (MCE Ducati) +0.802s
The opening round of the Bennetts British Superbike Championship takes place at Silverstone over the Easter weekend of 15/17 April.
Pictures courtesy of Double Red: Josh Brookes (25) and Tom Sykes (66).
