FPR STEP UP BRANDS HATCH PREPARATIONS
03 August 2005 - Foggy PETRONAS Racing

Foggy PETRONAS Racing stepped up their preparations for this weekend''s eighth round of the Superbike World Championship with an encouraging one-day test at Silverstone.

Although Garry McCoy was ruled out of action to allow further recovery time for the injuries sustained at the previous round, team-mate Steve Martin was able to make progress in developing the PETRONAS FP1''s new engine management system.

He completed nearly 50 laps of the shorter international circuit in the three one-hour sessions of a test day shared with British Superbike teams and was pleased to better his time from the recent World Superbike event at Silverstone.

Team manager Jack Valentine said: ''We didn''t come here with the objective of setting fast times, but to explore the various possibilities of the new engine management system. Yet Steve was still able to go quicker than he did at the race meeting and it has been a very positive test.

''We have been working on engine idle speeds, which will help us improve performance into and out of corners, and we have also tried a stiffer seat unit, which provides more feel from the back end as well as helping to reduce chatter.

''We experimented with further set-up changes in the final session but, if we had been chasing times, I think Steve could have taken another second off his time. The test has provided a good base setting for Brands Hatch and hopefully we can be on the pace early on.''

Steve said: ''We worked through a lot of things and I am pretty happy with the day. We tried lots of different systems and set-ups, which is what the electrical guys needed. This has given me a lot of confidence for Brands Hatch this weekend. Everything was ultra-reliable and I am approaching the meeting not thinking about anything except performing on the track.''

www.foggypetronasracing.com

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