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Ryuichi Kiyonari is back for third attempt on the Bennetts British Superbike crown and the 23 year old Japanese rider underlined his resolve to take the ‘number one’ plate with a blistering pace during testing at Almeria.
The HM Plant Honda rider not only blitzed some of his rivals for the domestic crown, but, despite taking a tumble, he ran over a second faster than former World Superbike Champion James Toseland who was testing the Ten Kate Honda at the Spanish circuit.
Kiyonari, the runner-up to Gregorio Lavilla last season, was quickly into the rhythm that eased him to a dozen victories then as he powered to a best lap of 1m 36.4secs, a quarter of a second up on his new team-mate, the former triple British Supersport Champion Karl Harris.
Michael Rutter, who moved during close season to head up the Stobart Honda team was third fastest on the leaderboard, after the intensive three day testing and development session, with a lap time of 1m 37.5 secs, a third of a second up on Toseland.
Rutter’s teamster Michael Laverty ran marginally than Red Bull Honda rider Jonathan Rea, who like Kiyonari escaped injury in a tumble, prior to a best lap of 1m 38.4secs, to nudge ahead, by a tenth of a second, of Aussie Karl Muggeridge who was riding the second Ten Kate Honda bike.
Steve Plater, testing the JJL Racing Honda, ran eighth fastest with a best time of 1m 40.1secs.
The opening action in the 2006 Bennetts British Superbike Championship is at Brands Hatch on Sunday 26 March.
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