Crucial Cremona testing concludes for Pawi and Toba
The PETRONAS MIE Racing Honda Team and its Supersport riders Khairul Idham Pawi and Kaito Toba have completed a very valuable test session at the Cremona Circuit in Italy.
With the last WorldSSP round having concluded at Assen on 21 April, Pawi and Toba had not ridden their CBR600RR machines for a full month. This week’s sessions, which ran on Thursday 23 and Friday 24 May, therefore provided the team and its two rookie SSP riders with an opportunity to get back into the swing of the season and to learn the layout of the track, a new entry on the 2024 championship calendar.
Both riders completed more than 50 laps each on Thursday morning, before thunderstorms and rain interrupted play at lunchtime. The team opted to sit out the afternoon session and return to the track on Friday. On day two the weather remained dry, with the riders and technicians making the most of the stable conditions and completing many laps so as to collate data and references that will serve for the September race weekend at this same circuit. With the squad fully focused on development of the CBR600RR rather than outright performance, Friday brought a best of 1’34.687 for Toba, and a 1’34.745 for Pawi.
Satisfied with the work completed this week, the team will be back in action during round 4 of the Supersport World Championship, set to take place over the weekend of 14-16 June.
Kaito Toba WorldSSP Rider #27
"The track is interesting but quite tight through some parts, especially for the Superbike, though it’s not so much of an issue for the 600 I don’t think. It’s quite technical and I like the layout, but we still need to improve various things with the bike. This week we’ve worked to improve the chassis side and I think we’ve found a good direction which can give me more confidence, but there’s still too much of a gap to the front, so we need to do more if we want to improve our performance."
Khairul Idham Pawi WorldSSP Rider #89
"This was our first time here at Cremona and I can say it’s a really nice, technical track. This was an important test in order to improve our understanding of the bike. We still have a lot to work on but, generally speaking, I’m pleased and can say that the whole team has worked really hard and effectively here. So thanks to the whole team, and now we’ll continue to do our best to prepare for round four at Misano."
Back to WorldSBK
