The Jerez test schedule for the KRT squad will be Monday and Tuesday on-track ahead of a day of rest and evaluation on Wednesday prior to two final days on the circuit on Thursday and Friday. This will be the last chance for Jonathan Rea and Tom Sykes to ride their new 2016 WorldSBK-specification Ninja ZX-10R before the start of the winter test ban, which runs from early December to the middle of January.

Both Sykes and Rea lifted their respective world titles at Jerez, but this is also a special circuit in terms of what it offers from its layout; with no long straights but many different types of corner, and some heavy braking zones thrown in, Jerez is something of an ideal test track.

At the most recent test at MotorLand Aragon, both riders moved closer to their final choice of race components for the 2016 season while still carrying out both function and performance tests. That cycle of work should conclude at this test in Jerez, with the next outings in Europe in late January focusing more on race performance at the first scheduled round of the championship in Australia on the final weekend of February.

Jonathan Rea:
“Kawasaki and the team have been developing the bike. The next thing for us to focus on at Jerez is my riding position, to see if we can achieve a bit more grip and more feeling with the bike. Aside from that, we have tested many items so far and we will also test front forks here. We will put all the best items together to work on our performance. I would imagine we would finish this test with some longer race simulations. This is a very important test because we need to be clear and precise in our work to make sure we have the right material at the next tests.”

Tom Sykes:
“Our base after the recent MotorLand tests felt really good and now we need to try and improve some things in all areas. In the last run at MotorLand, we tried a few things and our consistency appears to be very good. Overall, our tests have been positive. It is really nice to see that the direction we have worked along in the past with the Ninja ZX-10R is the same direction our new improvements are also moving in. We can go to Jerez now to test again with a lot more information, with a lot more track time available, and really try to get closer to a bike setup that we need to take to Phillip Island.”