Tuesday, November 29 2011
The claiming rule teams (CRTs) have been out in Jerez for the past three days testing their MotoGP machinery, which is comprised of production-motorcycle motors with custom-built chassis. It’s not the first time we’ve seen a CRT bike on the track, but the outing was saw the first ‘top-tier’ rider on-board the new racing format motorcycles as Colin Edwards, with NGM Forward Racing, lead on his BMW/Suter machine.
Many in the MotoGP world have been waiting, eager to cast their verdict on the CRT endeavour, but withholding judgments until a top GP rider took to the helm of a CRT machine and put the bike through its paces properly. Tests earlier this year had shown Mika Kallio on-board the BMW/Suter to be over six seconds off the pace of the 800cc-era machines, and the CRT future of MotoGP looked to be in jeopardy. Lap times improved over the year, becoming four seconds off that 1,000-era bike pace- showing an improvement, yet still with a gap to the front-runners.
Now as Edwards finally takes a test on the BMW S1000RR-powered Suter prototype, surely more comparisons between the factory prototypes and CRT offerings are to ensue. Posting a best lap time of 1’40.188 at the Spanish GP earlier this year, Edwards was roughly 2.5 seconds off his own pace, finishing the three-day test with a best lap to f 1’42.6. That news seems discouraging at face value, but it should be noted that the team dropped 1.3 seconds between Wednesday and Thursday’s tests.
Edwards rated the bike at about 65% of its potential and the Texan’s own fitness was questionable, as he was still recovering from injuries sustained at the Malaysian GP. Taking all this into account, does this week’s test equate to excuses for a lacklustre performance, or justify that more leaps and gains will be made before the start of the 2012 MotoGP Championship- it remains to be seen…
