\nTwo more days at the Circuito de Jerez – Angel Nieto, Andalucia, are in the books, and this time around, the field welcomed Honda HRC\u2019s new faces Somkiat Chantra and Jake Dixon to the MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship paddock. The riders didn\u2019t need much time to get up to speed, and across both days, the riders improved their times as they meshed more with the bike, the team, and the paddock as a whole.<\/p>\n
\nGETTING A GRIP: \u201cWe\u2019re happy with the progress we’ve made. I need to do more laps on the bike and come to understand the tyre\u201d<\/p>\n
\nSomkiat Chantra was one of the two riders to make the jump from MotoGP to the WorldSBK paddock, a move which saw him stay with Honda machinery, but there is still plenty for the Thai 26-year-old to get his head around. One of the most notable differences to the #35 is the tyres, as he is more accustomed to Michelin tyres from the MotoGP paddock. Differences aside, Chantra was clearly enthusiastic about him and the team\u2019s progress, and his progression will be one to watch in the coming months.<\/p>\n
\nOn his debut WorldSBK test Chantra said: \u201cIt was really nice in my first test with Honda HRC. We worked on many things with the team, and I tried to learn the bike and learn about the Pirelli tyres. We ran a lot of laps and tried to understand everything about the bike. Day by day, we were happier and happier, we started to improve our times and try more things. We\u2019re happy with the progress we’ve made. I need to do more laps on the bike and come to understand the tyre; I found it difficult to stop the bike at times. With more laps and more confidence, I think we can push more next year. Compared to the MotoGP bike, they\u2019re completely different. We tried to set up the electronics similar to a MotoGP bike and we found a good way of running it, and now we just need time to go step by step.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nALL SMILES FROM DIXON: \u201cI had a couple of crashes trying just to learn exactly how things are with it sometimes. I couldn\u2019t be happier with the team\u201d<\/p>\n
\nAfter being called up to WorldSBK from Moto2, Jake Dixon felt pleased to be back on a comparatively larger superbike due to his experience in British superbikes as opposed to what he would have been riding in Moto2. Dixon\u2019s times improved as the test went on, and while he crashed three times, to him it was all part of coming to understand the bike’s limits. While the time in the garage making repairs saw them lose time preventing any time with the SCQ tyre, the plentiful long runs were enough to put a smile on the #96\u2019s face when asked about his days in Jerez.<\/p>\n
\nOn his first test event in the paddock and his view of his crashes, Dixon said: \u201cIt was really really good, honestly, it\u2019s so nice to be back on a big bike again, having that power is really really nice, but it\u2019s a massive, massive learning curve. Unfortunately, I had a couple of crashes trying just to learn exactly how things are with it sometimes. I couldn\u2019t be happier with the team. I\u2019ve never been with a more professional team. There are more people in this team than I\u2019ve ever had around me before, so that\u2019s really nice. It\u2019s just a massive learning curve, and I need to take my time with it. The crashes were a little silly, I was too over the limit with the braking, today I didn\u2019t feel too good with the front, I crashed in Turn 2, it was nothing, and then the last one, I wheelied far too much coming out of T4, couldn\u2019t get the bike stopped, ran into the gravel and put the bike down because the barrier was coming. I\u2019m a little stiff from that last one, I could have done without that, to be fair. Not an ideal situation, but that\u2019s racing. It\u2019s been a great two days, a lot of laps, a lot of long runs. Unfortunately, because of the crash, we didn\u2019t get to put a qualifying tyre in, so that\u2019s all she wrote for today.\u201d<\/p>\n