First winter test for Yakhnich Motorsport

JEREZ DE LA FRONTERA

5-6 NOVEMBER 2012

For the 2013 debut of the Yakhnich Motorsport Team the weather in Jerez was not so friendly.  Cold temperature and many showers in two days in which Yakhnich Motorsport team shared the spanish track with the BMW Motorrad Italia Team, testing the Marco Melandri and  Chaz Davies, gave no possibility for our riders to find  perfect asphalt conditions. Just the 5.th November, in the late morning, the track was quite dry for a couple of hours, but even in that moment it was impossible for Vladimir Leonov, Sam Lowes and Dakota Mamola to push hard.

In the Supersport side of the box Vladimir Leonov and Sam Lowes had to do different works, but first of all the new crew staff added to the team was introduced to both of them. Then Vladimir could concentrate on working in the new engine development set-up and in suspensions settings, while Sam made his first contacts and adjustments with the Yamaha R6 after four years riding the Honda CBR.

At the end of the day good impressions from both sides, even if the lap times was not so exitings, due to the low temperature and high humidity on the asphalt.

Dakota Mamola, with the stock 600 Yakhnich R6 made his first contact with the new engine development for the next season, and even for him the first impression was very positive although he made only a few laps.

The second day a completely wet asphalt in the morning, allowed Vladimir Leonov to go on in the program testing new types of rear wet tyres (as you know, Yakhnich Motorsport is the development team for Pirelli Tyres in Supersport) and the result was very impressive, with very fast laptimes and consistent rythm.

Sam Lowes has ridden again his bike with the intent of learning as much as possible of the electronic management system in these difficult grip situation, and even for him the wet run was very positive.

In the afternoon only Lowes was riding, ‘cause the humid asphalt conditions did not allowed Vladimir to push enough to go on developing suspensions setting, while Sam had the necessity to ride as much as possible to improve his knowledge of the Yamaha R6 riding style. 

Dakota avoided to ride with the wet asphalt (no test to do for him in this situation), while he was able to ride a lot in the humid afternoon, testing some “middle way” suspension setting, as in the 2013 season even him will ride with Bitubo suspensions.

VLADIMIR LEONOV

“Unfortunately the circuit conditions was never perfect to push enough to finish all our testing program, but I’m happy we obtained good results with all the work we could do. New position on the bike, new engine improvements, new suspensions settings... was positive, even in the rain we had many fast lap and now we have lot of datas to analyze to improve again in next trainings”. 

SAM LOWES

“Before arriving here I was exited to test my new bike, the Yamaha R6, after four season riding Honda. Now I’m much more exited, ‘cause I understood that the potential of the bike will allow me to try to win next year! The riding style necessary with this bike is different, but it was quite easy for me to understand and improve lap by lap, even in this difficult conditions. Ad even the team welcomed me in the best way, and I felt immediately “at home”. Yes, I’m sure we will have a great season in 2013.”

DAKOTA MAMOLA

“it was not easy to ride in this conditions. The wet or humid asphalt did not allowed to push enough to go to the real limit, but I’m happy to discover the new technical steps on my bike increased a lot the acceleration of the bike... Now unfortunately I’ve to be operated to the shoulder, so maybe I’ll lost next team training, but I want to be absolutely ready for the beginning of next important season in European Stock 600”.