Source: BSB.

Reigning Motorpoint British Supersport Champion Billy McConnell has completed his first laps on board the Smiths Racing BMW at Guadix in Spain as the team prepare for their move into the MCE British Superbike Championship.

The team’s opening test got underway in Spain with McConnell adjusting to the Superbike after recent campaigns in the Supersport class.

The Australian contender was already impressed with the BMW’s performance and characteristics after the opening sessions on track as the team continue to forge ahead with their testing program.

“It has been going really well so far,” McConnell said. “I had been lucky enough to do some laps on the BMW road bike before we headed here to get some track time in, but the race bike obviously is different again so we have been trying to get as many laps as possible under our belts.

“We have started making a few small changes with the bike, but for me I have been getting used to riding the Superbike again and on the slick tyres.

“We have done some runs on new and used tyres to give me a feel of how the bike reacts, but already the package feels much better than I expected. Everything about the BMW is so user-friendly and now we can just keep building up throughout this test.”

The Halsall Suzuki team have knuckled down on the opening day of testing at Guadix with Josh Waters completing 88 laps as their second test got underway.

The team has been building momentum with the GSX-R1000 as they plough ahead with the development work ahead of the Easter opening round of the season at Donington Park at the start of next month.

“It has been a better first day here and I am starting to get a good feel with the bike now that we have had more laps,” Waters said. “We have a really good plan and today I started off by learning the track as I haven’t been here before.

“We have a good list of things we have been working through and the team are doing a great job as we keep improving all the time.

“We still have the time here to get through everything we are hoping to, so we have ended today ready to pick it up again in the morning.”

The Honda Racing team continued their pre-season testing program at Monteblanco in Spain today with Jason O’Halloran focusing on longer race runs during the second day.

O’Halloran completed two race test runs, improving on his times and consistency from the data collected in January.

The team now have a day off tomorrow (Wednesday) before returning to the circuit for further testing on Thursday.

“Day two of testing went well, we’ve been working on corner entry and exits and I think we’ve found some pretty positive things,” O’Halloran said.

“This afternoon we managed to do four full-race runs, which was positive and have found some good things to work on for Thursday when we’re on track next.”

Milwaukee Yamaha duo Josh Brookes and Broc Parkes meanwhile took their first laps on the 2015 YZF-R1 at Alcarras, shaking down the race version of the bike.