Jonathan Rea and Hiroshi Aoyama have concluded their three-day test session at Phillip Island. For both riders it was coming to grips with the 2012 CBR1000RR Fireblade and testing an array of new chassis and suspension components and continuing development on the ride-by-wire system that the team introduced last season during the Imola round.

Rea who after getting hit by a bird on Tuesday, yesterday ended up running over snake (check out the pic here) talked about the test.

“We’ve had a good three days, completed a lot of laps and tested a whole heap of new parts. We’ve also done quite a few long runs and race simulations which, to be honest, was really good – for the simulation we did today, we even used the lights! The full race-run allows us to see exactly where we are, even though the disadvantage of testing on your own is that you’ve got no-one to measure yourself against. But the whole team is working really well and I’m really enjoying riding the bike again. Step-by-step we’re making things better and, although when you test this many parts you can end up going round in circles, I think we’ve got a bike with a good base setting to go into the 2012 season with.”

Continue reading: Honda World Superbike team concludes three-day test at the Island

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Jonathan Rea and Hiroshi Aoyama concluded another positive day of private testing at Phillip Island. The Honda World Superbike team is currently working on chassis and suspensions on the 2012 Honda CBR1000RR 2012, however the Irish rider also ran into some trouble with the local fauna.

While Phillip Island is famous for motorcycle racing, but it also famous for their birds who seem to like to wreck mayhem on riders and their bikes.

Rea tweeted that he was their latest victim, but he didn’t take any survivors, “Hit a magpie today about 140mph today with my knee. The old chap didn’t survive and got stuck in my rear-sets! Feel a bit bad to be honest! “

Rea may feel bad but he was pretty lucky, because both Troy Corser and Noriyuki Haga have both suffered bruising injuries caused by ‘kamikaze’ birds.

Continue reading: Positive second day of testing for Rea and Aoyama at Phillip Island

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With the testing ban finally lifted, the first team to hit the track preparing for the new season is Honda World Superbike team with riders Jonathan Rea and Hiroshi Aoyama.

Rea and Aoyama who will be racing with #65 and #4, are currently at Phillip Island in a three day private test with the new race spec 2012 CBR1000RR Fireblades for the first time since the 20th anniversary version of Honda’s iconic sports machine was launched last September.

The team will start its 2012 campaign boosted by news that, following a year as title sponsor, Castrol will remain as a key secondary partner until the end of the 2013 season, so with all probability the team will no longer be officially known as Castrol Honda.

Continue reading: Video: Jonathan Rea and Hiroshi Aoyama testing at Phillip Island

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Of all the World Superbike teams Castrol Honda is probably the best in offering fans more videos and sneak peaks into how their team works than any other, so this recently released video isn’t that surprising, but it is slightly different as they fitted Daniel Postmus, their tallest mechanic (6’10″ -2.1 meters tall) with a Go Pro camera to capture Jonathan Rea’s Portimao Superpole from another view point.

That Saturday afternoon Rea whipped his Honda CBR1000RR around the beautiful Portoguese track in a stunning 1′41.712 and breaking the track record in the final Superpole session of the 2011 season that gave him his second pole victory of the season.

Rea who endured an injury fraught 2011 took two third place podiums at the Portimao round, also thanks to the new ride-by-wire system that the team was allowed to use from the Imola round.

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The Castrol Honda Superbike team has concluded their private three day test session at the Losail International circuit in Qatar. For Jonathan Rea and Superbike newbie Hiroshi Aoyama it was a positive test with both riders despite the broiling track temperatures were able to lap under the lap record.

Rea continued his work on chassis parts for the 2012 machine and on the ride-by-wire system that the team first introduced at the Imola round, while Aoyama spent the three days getting used to riding a superbike spec Honda and Pirelli tires, and according to team owner Ronald Ten Kate, the team will have to make him some specific parts due to the Japanese rider’s small size and weight.

Jonathan Rea: “We’ve got through a lot of work these three days and ended with two long runs today, which was pretty tough in the heat. We’ve tried heaps of stuff and, like the last couple of tests, we ended up running out of time. But it’s still been really productive and I’m looking forward to starting the next test on my favourite combination of components because we weren’t able to finish on that today. We’ve been making some quite big changes to the bike, just to feel the difference between the various set-ups and everyone has been working really well. It was good to be back at this circuit too; I like it here, and I’m really looking forward to getting back on the bike again in January.

Hiroshi Aoyama: “I got food poisoning before I left Spain to go for the test so I was a bit uncomfortable to start. Also, my leather suits didn’t arrive in time so I was forced to use an old one. But it was a very interesting test and a good opportunity for me to meet my new team and spend some time getting used to the new bike and the tyres. We still have some work to make the bike more comfortable for me to ride so I was not able to push really hard. I don’t know much about the bike yet and there is still a lot to discover, so I will continue to learn, little-by-little. But the test has been really good and I hope we’ll get some new materials for the next time I ride the bike.”

Castrol Honda will resume testing after January 15th when the testing ban is lifted and will be holding a private test at Phillip Island in Australia,

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First thing, that is not Jonathan Rea on the Castrol Honda, but new team mate Hiroshi Aoyama who has decided to run the #4 plate that he used when he won the 2009 250cc World Championship title, while Rea has reverted back to his old #65.

The Castrol Honda team has gotten a head start on testing for the 2012 season and decided on the Losail track in Qatar this time for their testing sessions after being hit by constantly bad weather when they conducted their tests at Miller Motorsports Park, Portimao and Aragon last season.

Aoyama is getting his first taste of the CBR1000RR and Pirelli tires, while Rea is testing the 2011 Superbike with 2012 parts. Testing will continue tomorrow.

Photo source | CastrolHonda@twitter.com

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Jonathan Rea took his second Superpole of 2011 during the final round of the World Superbike season at Portimao. The Northern Irishman headed the top of the timesheets when it counted the most, in SP3 he stopped the clock with a stunning lap of 1.41.712 that broke Cal Crutchlow’s 2010 record by almost three tenths of second.

World Superbike champion and birthday boy Carlos Checa, who is donning a special edition helmet celebrating both the Superbike crown and his birthday will be taking off in second and he was just a little more than two tenths of a second adrift. Closing out the front row will be the soon-to-be ex-Yamaha riders, Eugene Laverty and Marco Melandri who were 3rd and 4th respectively. Checa and Laverty have yet to announce for which teams they’ll be riding for next season.

Opening the second row will be Effenbert Liberty’s duo Sylvain Guintoli and Jakub Smrz. While Joan Lascorz finally had a decent Superpole session and outqualified Kawasaki team mate Tom Sykes for 7th, while Noriyuki Haga was the best rider for Aprilia, albeit for the Pata team in 8th, as Aprilia factory riders Leon Camier didn’t make it out of SP2 and was 12th while team mate Max Biaggi didn’t qualify for the Superpole and he will be taking off in 17th.

Ayrton Badovini was the highest place BMW rider with his 9th spot, while Tom Sykes took 10th after both were bumped out in the last seconds of SP2 by Lascorz and Guintoli.

Continue reading: Jonathan Rea nabs Superpole at Portimao

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Jonathan Rea was the fastest rider at Portimao in this morning’s second qualifying practice. The Castrol Honda rider who will be partner Hiroshi Aoyama next season, laid down a best lap of 1’42.569, which was a little less than five tenths slower than Cal Crutchlow’s race lap record at the Portuguese track.

New Superbike champion Carlos Checa took second and was 0.152s adrift and still has to comunicate where he’ll be riding next season, while future BMW team mates Marco Melandri and Leon Haslam improved their laps times to finish third and fourth respectively.

An incredible Davide Giugliano took the fifth spot and was just 0.527s from Rea’s best time. The 2011 World Superstock champion who may become Althea Racing’s main rider next year, finished ahead fellow Ducati riders Jakub Smrz and Sylvain Guintoli. Tom Sykes was eighth while Eugene Laverty dropped to ninth after his excellent showing yesterday. Joan Lascorz took tenth which will allow him into this afternoon’s Superbike.

The biggest news of the qualifying session was that Max Biaggi didn’t make it into the Superpole. The Italian who is still nursing a painful foot injury failed to make the cut, finishing 17th and missing the 16th spot by 0.114s. Also not progressing to the Superpole session will be Troy Corser, Karl Muggeridge, Javier Fores, Yoshimura Suzuki’s Josh Waters and Santiago Barragan.

Continue reading: WSBK Portimao: Jonathan Rea retakes command in QP2, Biaggi out of Superpole

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The first free practice of the final round of the World Superbike season at Portimao, saw Jonathan Rea top the timesheets with a best lap of 1’43.945, pipping the newly crowned Superbike champion Carlos Checa for the spot

Checa, still hasn’t decided where he’s heading in 2012 after receiving a big offer from BMW (who could decide to move Leon Haslam to the BMW Italia team if the Spaniard should accept) was just 0.036s adrift.

An impressive Ayrton Badovini was third followed by Tom Sykes and Sylvain Guintoli, who suffered technical problems on his Ducati 1198 as did team mate Jakub Smrz who finished the session in ninth. Leon Camier in what may be the last weekend with th Aprilia Alitalia team took sixth, while soon-to-be ex Yamaha rider Eugene Laverty grabbed the seventh spot. Max Biaggi returning from his injury at Nurburgring took a solid eighth and was a little less then nine tenths of a second off pace. Kawasaki’s Joan Lascorz closed out the top ten in what may be his last weekend with the Green team.

Continue reading: WSBK Portimao: Jonathan Rea leads in first free practice

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Lap times were so tight in this afternoon’s World Superbike Superpole session at Magny Cours that many riders had to use their qualifying tires in the SP1 and to get the axe at the end of the session were Jakub Smrz, Michel Fabrizio, Mark Aitchison and Ayrton Badovini.

The situation in SP2 was even more tense. Marco Melandri and Carlos Checa almost did not making the cut and both were forced to use up their last available qualifying tire to make it through to the final session and they both lucky that none of the riders behind them on the timesheets were able to improve their lap times. Out after SP2 were Nori Haga, Joan Lascorz, Maxime Berger and Troy Corser.

Of the eight riders who made it into the SP3, only two still had a qualifying tire and that was Eugene Laverty and Jonathan Rea. Laverty broke the circuit record with his 1′37.600, but less than a minute later Rea blasted out a 1.37.940 that pushed the Yamaha rider into second.

Continue reading: Jonathan Rea grabs the pole at Magny Cours

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The new electronics that Jonathan Rea’s Castrol Honda is sporting, may have helped him in today’s race 1 at Imola, but it was all the Northern Irishman’s talent and determination that let him keep a faster and reborn Noriyuki Haga at bay for almost half of the race and let him take and emotional win, his second this season (Assen race 1) after so many injuries.

Rea took the lead from Tom Sykes on lap five, but the Castrol Honda rider would almost meet his match when the Samurai of Slide began a hard charge to the front after being bumped back to fifth in a contact with Skyes at the first turn. Haga would set the fastest laps in the race (1′47″960) as he started to reel in Rea and finally caught him on the 14th lap, but Imola is a difficult track to find places to overtake and they would take the race to the finish line one directly behind the other.

Carlos Checa struggled in the open laps and was lying in a distant fourth behind Sykes, but he upped his pace in the second half of the race to stay on Sykes tail. The Kawasaki rider managed to keep the Spaniard behind him riding in defense mode until the final lap when the Althea Ducati rider tucked in and went past the Kawasaki rider.

Continue reading: Jonathan Rea bags victory in Race 1 at Imola

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It’s been a little while since we’ve seen Jonathan Rea head the timesheets in this season’s World Superbike championship, but the Castrol Honda rider seems very comfortable with the new ride-by-wire system that’s helping him get a little more out of his CBR1000RR today at Imola, as he jumped ahead of Carlos Checa in the final minutes to post a 1.48.241 lap that left the Althea Ducati rider adrift by 0.159s.

Leon Haslam continues his good form at the Italian track with the third best time followed by Michel Fabrizio and Marco Melandri. Kawasaki’s Tom Sykes was just shy of the Yamaha rider by 0.040s which put him into sixth.

Maxime Berger who is out of a ride at the end of season, with Supersonic closing up shop was seventh, while Noriyuki Haga and Jakub Smrz closed out the top ten, but wildcard riders Federico Sandi and Alex Polita were very close behind.

Continue reading: WSBK Imola: Jonathan Rea tops the charts in QP1

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