Abe: You look tired, do you feel tired?

The Marlboro Yamaha team has already started its pre-season testing programme for 2000, rider Carlos Checa completing two days at Jerez, Spain, last week.

The Spaniard - who was unhappy with his YZR500's handling for much of last season, spent most of the time experimenting with new chassis set-ups. "We've had some good ideas to try for some while but we didn't want to try them at a GP because there's just not enough time," said team manager Geoff Crust. "We've given the bike a completely different feel and trying big changes like that at a race would be confusing. This was our first opportunity to try this stuff - it's engine and chassis mods. We've been playing around with chassis stiffness and also with rider position, moving him around the bike. We've sat Carlos back to front now and he's fine!"

Checa - who's had over 25 crashes this year - posted promising lap times but fell again on day one of the outing. "It clouded over and the track temperature dropped real fast, it got too cold for the front tyre he was running," explained Crust. "Even today the track temperature was 15 degrees, which is too cold for real grip but he was doing good times for the conditions - consistent 44.1s/44.2s. Jerez is very temperature sensitive. Somewhere around 30degrees is the optimum - it's that kind of temperature when everyone goes fast in pre-season tests during the spring. Then it's hotter at the Grand Prix and people are one or two seconds slower."

Rio GP winner Norick Abe also attended the test but withdrew suffering from exhaustion, blamed on the hectic end-of-season GP tour that took riders from Australia to South Africa to Brazil and then Argentina over five weekends.

amasuperbike.com