For the first time since the end of the 2020 season, the FIM Superbike World Championship paddock reunited at the circuit of Jerez de la Frontera. For the GRT Yamaha WorldSBK Junior Team, Garrett Gerloff carried out development work with various new parts ahead of 2021, while new rider, Japanese All-Japan JSB1000 champion Kohta Nozane, got his first taste of the Yamaha R1 WorldSBK machine.
By the end of the first day, American rider Gerloff, fresh from a stellar MotoGP appearance in Valencia, topped the timings, with Nozane 10th after showing steady improvement throughout the day.
On Wednesday, Gerloff and Nozane continued to gain confidence and were fourth and 10th respectively, but with much-improved lap times. They completed a combined 281 laps, with Gerloff riding 138 and Nozane 143.
Every time I get on the bike it feels more and more like mine. During this test, I jumped on this past year’s Yamaha R1 and had a really good feeling right away, but I also tried the new development parts for 2021 and I immediately found some more details which made me even more comfortable. That was awesome. I am super motivated for next year, we have made a lot of progress in general. Now, I just want to keep training as much as I can. I will go home to the United States for the winter break, and I can’t wait to see my family and friends again; it’s been a long time, so I am really looking forward to that, and to going back to my home motocross and go-kart tracks. It will be good to have that sense of familiarity. To take that positivity from my family and then come back here will be a good way to start the season. My expectations for next year are to fight to be the best Yamaha, which might include fighting for the championship. I am really happy with the GRT Yamaha team and with the Yamaha R1 and I think that, if we focus on what is right in front of us, race after race, day after day, we will be strong.
To me, everything was new: the bike, the tyres, the circuit, it was my first time with all these things, and in the beginning, I was very anxious. But, during the two days, I could improve my pace little by little. That was very nice, and it was a really productive and useful test. At first, due to the coronavirus situation, I was unsure whether I could take part in the test or not, but in the end, luckily, I could participate and gain very important experience. The entire GRT Yamaha crew has welcomed me very warmly and the atmosphere in the garage is great. They are fully supporting me, so I really wanted to do my best to give them a nice result and show them my improvements. My teammate, Garrett, is very kind and we had some interesting conversations, which was another positive thing about these two days. For next season, I will focus on learning and improving as much as possible, and on trying to achieve our goals. I will try to do my best. Also, I will for sure practice my language skills to improve my English!
