For some reason I am not overjoyed at this (probably down to my favouritism for Bayliss) but....
"The Ducati Marlboro Team wrapped up its third and final day of testing at the Jerez circuit today with new signing Carlos Checa smashing Valentino Rossi's 2004 pole time by almost 0.8secs.
Riding with Bridgestone tyres for the first time at the test, Checa and team-mate Loris Capirossi (pictured) worked non-stop for three days on a development programme aimed at finalising the new tyres for next season. Both riders put in numerous sequences of laps on their Desmosedici machines and today - for the first time - also tried qualifying rubber.
The result was former factory Yamaha rider Checa recording a best time of 1min 40.065secs, almost eight-tenths of a second quicker than this year's Spanish GP pole mark set by Valentino Rossi, to head the end of day timesheets........"
I agree, but I still feel Baylisstis was treated pretty unfairly, part of me still hopes he will still will perform, on that unmentionable word Hon.....................Hon.................
doesn't matter how fast he is in a test, but good on 'im - can he cut the mustard in a race and not throw it down the road? for ducati sake i hope so, but i am a bayliss supporter too and want troy to make the other ricecakes eat dust.