Xaus and Rea got some pre race testing in at Miller.

The Castrol Honda World Superbike team has completed a two-day test at Miller Motorsport Park near Salt Lake City in the USA ahead of this weekend’s fifth round of the 2011 World Superbike championship.

The team nominated the 4.907km circuit as its test track for the 2011 season and riders Jonathan Rea and Ruben Xaus used the test over Sunday and Monday to test new parts for their CBR1000RR machines, including a new swingarm and suspension components.

“We nominated Miller as our test track this year because last season we really struggled with bike set-up. I really enjoy riding here in America but the bumpy nature of the track makes it very difficult to find the optimum settings for the bike. My team have pulled out all the stops though, and we had a lot of new items to test,” commented Rea.

The test was affected by bad weather over Utah, which restricted the number of dry laps and left the Miller circuit dirty and lacking in grip. Despite the conditions, the Castrol Honda team was able to make progress in machine set-up and will now complete its preparations for the weekend’s racing.

Despite the temperamental weather conditions, Xaus felt the Miller test yielded some great results.

“The morning of the second day we worked hard to improve the set-up and lap times in between some pretty bad weather conditions and in the end found something better,” Xaus stated.

“I’m pleased to say that I finally found a good base set-up for the race weekend so hopefully I can help to push the whole team forward.”

Round five of the 2011 World SBK series will take place at Miller on Monday 30 May, which is Memorial Day in the USA and a public holiday.