By GSE Racing Press Release
November 29 2004

After a year out of competitive action the GSE Racing squad ended their first test in preparation for a return to British Superbike with the satisfaction of setting competitive times at the Valencia circuit.

 Working their way through the array of Dunlop tyres they were scheduled to test, riders Leon Haslam and James Haydon had very different experiences on their Ducati 999F04s over three sun-kissed days, but ended with a similar feeling of having made real progress.

Haslam, who set a best time of 1:35.7, put in a massive 180 laps of the 4.005km Valencia circuit, while Haydon lost some time in the first two days due to crashes, as he found the close-season limit the hard way. The final day saw him in the groove on his 999, improving his best time to 1:37.0 while concentrating on set-up and endurance testing of tyres.

GSE Team Manager Colin Wright was full of praise for all the staff on site at Valencia, and appreciative of the hard work put in by all. “Someone sent me a text message earlier asking me how it’s gone and I replied that I can’t get the smile off my face,” beamed Wright. “To put it simply, I’m delighted. We’ve had three days of good weather, three days on circuit with lots of other guys, seeing what we’ve got to achieve. We’ve got four new people in the team, including the riders, but I can honestly say it’s like we’ve never been away. The atmosphere has been good and the working environment is excellent. It’s been exactly how I like it, because we had a lot of hard work to do, we got it all done and we all enjoyed the experience. James’s crash on Wednesday meant we were working on the bikes until after 11pm, but the whole team was working to get it rebuilt, not just James’s mechanics. That says a lot about our team spirit.”

For Haslam, his first three days at the sharp end of the 2005 GSE Racing operation were fruitful. “I have had a year of experience on the 999 but this bike has got different forks and engine from the previous one, so I’ve had to learn about using those as well,” stated Haslam. “The other big change is running Dunlop tyres, so it was a case of learning to set the bike up for them. I’ve also learned that it’s a totally different way of riding. This test has mainly been to build my confidence with the bike. We’ve tested a lot of Dunlops, mostly race tyres, and ended up doing a 1:35.7 on a soft race tyre. I’m happy because I’ve gone quicker pretty much every day.”

Haydon, uninjured and undaunted by his two spills, ended his test full of enthusiasm for the roads ahead. “The test didn’t quite go to plan, after a couple of slip offs in the first two days, but today has been excellent,” said James, after a gruelling initiation with his new team. “I had a really good 25-lap run on the bike and I got a bit more intimate with the way it works and how it feels. I got behind Laconi and tagged along with him for a while. The bike feels good and the team has worked brilliantly so I can’t wait to get the bike to the next track now, to take it up another step.”