virgivaughn: 2012 Aragon WSBK Tire Test Press Releases: 17-inch Tires And Wheels Just As Fast as 16.5-inch Wheels They Will Replace

Press releases from Infront Motor Sports and the World Superbike teams after the official Pirelli test at Aragon, where the new 17-inch tires were debuted:

Sykes fastest on new 17-inch wheels and tyres

MotorLand Aragon (Spain), Monday 2 July - Tom Sykes (Kawasaki Racing Team) set the fastest time of the one-day Infront Motor Sports official tests on the new generation of 17-inch wheels and Pirelli tyres which were seen for the first time today. His lap of 1 minute 57.254 seconds compares favourably with the existing race lap record, set on race tyres not qualifying rubber, of 1 minute 58.251 seconds.

“We’ve worked hard today again after a difficult day yesterday, when unfortunately I believe that the wind affected us more than our competitors,” said Sykes. “We did a run this morning to confirm our race pace and I did a 58.8 on lap 17 so it’s a completely different story with no wind. The plan was to test the 17” tyre in the morning but we wanted to confirm what happened yesterday, then this afternoon we kept the same settings and tested the new size wheel and tyres which I was pleasantly surprised with.”

Year:

2012