On the second day of British Superbike testing at Calafat yesterday, both the HM Plant Honda and Swan Yamaha teams began to up their pace after getting dialled in at the Spanish circuit on Tuesday.

The reigning champions led the way with both Ryuichi Kiyonari and Shane ‘Shakey’ Byrne making progress with the new Fireblades as Swan Yamaha made some impressive progress on only their second day on track to close in on their rivals.

The HM Plant Honda team started later on track this morning due to the cold track conditions, before turning up the heat on their development as reigning champion Ryuichi Kiyonari focused on testing a new engine.

“It has been a better day today, as the second day you always feel better on the bike,” Kiyonari commented. “Today we tested a new engine for this year and I was very happy with the result and there have been very good improvements.

“There is still some work to be done but I think we will have more speed. I was surprised just how good the bike felt with the change and tomorrow we will do some more work on the chassis set-up so then we will be ready for Cartagena and the next test.”

Meanwhile, Shakey completed several longer stints on track in order to continue chipping away and learning the bike.

“I am definitely happy after today. We have ironed out a few little problems that we had yesterday and today has been really exciting as I feel more at home and we have stepped up,” he said.

“Like I said yesterday I am keen not to compare the bike to what I have previously ridden and I did some longer stints and that was good for me. We have already improved the front end of the bike and worked on the electronics so we are really just chipping away and getting into a groove now.

“I know that by tomorrow the bike will feel like mine and then we can head to Cartagena and see what benchmark the other boys set and see how the bike reacts at a different circuit. I have been really happy so far with the team.

“I am looking forward to some more hard work tomorrow and then move on to the next test.”

The third HM Plant Honda was also back on track today as Australia’s Jason O’Halloran continued to adjust to the team’s Superstock specification Fireblade and he improved his times from yesterday by over a second as he got to grips with the new track, team and bike.

“We headed in a similar direction to what we were working on yesterday, making the rear softer and trying to get more side grip but it is feeling pretty good now already,” he said.

“We have completed lots of laps today and posted consistent times, so everything is going well for us.”

For Swan Yamaha the team have already got off to a promising start as Tommy Hill moved into similar lap times to his Honda rivals and is hoping for more tomorrow.

Michael Laverty was equally impressed by the progress the team has already made and admitted he could have improved his pace if he had run with a new set of tyres towards the end of the day.