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Toprak Razgatlioglu is psyched and ready for the first round of the season at Phillip Island at the end of February, and we got to see this in day 2 of the pre-season tests at the Circuit de Jerez Angel Nieto, during which the 2021 Superbike World Champion remained at the top of the time monitor. In the second and final day of testing in Spain, he further decreased his best lap, almost reaching 22 thousandths, Jonathan Rea’s track record in 2019 on the Kawasaki. But this good news was, however, squashed by a mishap in the morning, which could have given him a much worse outcome ...
“Honestly, I don’t know what happened. It wasn’t a normal slip. I fell as soon as I pressed the brake. Was it because of the cold? That’s possible,” the Turkish rider admitted. “The few times I ended up falling, I always do it drastically. At first, I was afraid I had broken my leg. I’ve never been in that much pain. But, fortunately, it was just a bad blow. Everything went well, and I got back on the bike as usual.”
But the day ended well.
“In the early part of the afternoon, I had to mainly ride with the R1 2022, sinc the 2023 updates had suffered a lot of damage. But the sensations were good. Less so was the grip. The moment we reassembled the new swingarm, the situation improved. For the time attack, we used the SCQ, and we also worked a lot with the SCX. We’re starting to understand the real potential of our package.”
What are the advantages of the new swingarm? Click HERE for details.
“There’s greater grip and, as a result, the bike accelerates better when exiting corners.”
Bautista focused on his pace today, completing 20 laps in a row with the SC0. What about you?
“In these past two days, it was important for us to guide the development of the bike. We didn’t complete a real race simulation like Alvaro, but only a few small 7-8 laps at most with the SCX. I didn’t have time to test the SC0 because of the fall,” Razgatlioglu said.
