BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team’s Eugene Laverty and Tom Sykes today concluded their first two-day test of the 2020 season at the Circuito De Jerez in Spain. Eugene threw his leg over his new BMW S 1000 RR for the first time on Thursday and managed to gel with the bike straight away. Throughout the opening day Laverty went through his testing plan and completed 60+ laps setting his fastest lap time of 1’40.971, putting him in P10 at the end of day 1.
Day 2 at the Circuito De Jerez and both Eugene and Tom continued to work through their testing schedules, however with multiple red flags interruptions throughout the day. Eugene made some changes to his BMW S 1000 RR from day 1 with front fork spring adjustments and trying different electronic strategies. He managed to go faster from his 1’40.971 on Thursday with a 1’40.328 putting him in P10.
Eugene Laverty
“Overall, it was a good test. Riding the bike I can tell this is the best chassis I’ve ever ridden. The way the bike turns and enters the corner is incredible. It’s surprising just how physical it is to ride right now. We have to get the power under control for the corner exit. Once I can get that it will be even more ride-able. Right now I can wrestle it for one lap if we wanted to get a lap time but for test that is not necessary. So we’ve been working and just trying to tame the beast a little bit so we can get a bike that is going to be comfortable for 20 laps. The chassis is incredible and that’s the important thing. The base of the bike is good, now it’s just another fine-tuning of the electronics.”