YAMAHA GERMANY MAKE BIG PROGRESS
13 March 2005 - Yamaha Racing

Hard work from the Yamaha Motor Germany supersport team allowed riders Broc Parkes and Kevin Curtain to make considerable progress with the development of their 2005 model YZF-R6s at this weekend''s official tests in Valencia.

The Australian pair set the third and fourth fastest times of the weekend and declared themselves pleased with improvements made to the bikes.

After finishing fourth and sixth in the opening round in Qatar two weeks ago, the team was able to try new settings on the front forks which transformed the handling characteristics.

Both riders were able to run consistently at race pace in the four 90 minute sessions over the two days. Parkes, almost fully recovered from the broken hand which hampered him at the opening race in Qatar, completed 104 laps and set a best time of 1:38.804. Curtain completed fewer laps than his team-mate due to a high speed crash on Saturday but ended up just a fraction of a second behind with a best of 1:38.913 from his 82 laps.

Honda team-mates Sébastien Charpentier and Katsuaki Fujiwara set the fastest times of the weekend. Round two of the championship takes place at the Phillip Island circuit in Australia on the weekend of April 1-3.

Supersport World Championship Valencia test - leading times
1. Sébastien Charpentier (Honda) 1:37.880
2. Katsuaki Fujiwara (Honda) 1:38.178
3. Broc Parkes (Yamaha) 1:38.804
4. Kevin Curtain (Yamaha) 1:38.913

Broc Parkes (Yamaha Motor Germany)
''The bike was heaps better here than it''s been all year and we''ve made more progress in these two days than we did in all of our time in Qatar. My broken hand is better. It''s not quite 100 percent but almost there it - it feels good to be fast again! I was able to put in consistent lap times and the front tyres are working really good over a race distance. I felt I could have gone quicker in the afternoon but the wind was a bit stronger and that affected times. Even so, this is the closest we''ve been to Charpentier.''

Kevin Curtain (Yamaha Motor Germany)
''We made big improvements to the suspension overnight and that gave me much more rear end grip. Because we''re running a new bike we''re still having to work our way through things with the suspension, but we are getting there and we''ve now got the bike working good round here. The crash was a real big one. I had just gone out and done a few and felt that I had found the limit, but I lost it going into turn five and got spat right off. I''m heading back off to Australia on Tuesday and I''m really looking forward to the race at Phillip Island.''

Terrell Thien (Team Manager, Yamaha Motor Germany)
''I think everyone is really pleased with how things have gone. We''ve made good progress with the chassis and it was good that we didn''t have the high front tyre wear we suffered in Qatar. Broc''s wrist is much better now and today is the first time in around 18 months that Kevin has been beaten by his team-mate. It''s good to have two riders in the team who can push each other and they''re both keen to get back to Australia and race at Phillip Island.''

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