Ducati Corse riders Ben Bostrom and Troy Bayliss finished their test at Valencia today with excellent lap times.

"I'm really pleased with this final test session of the year," commented Troy Bayliss after two days of hard work. "All the new tyres we tested proved to be very interesting. We even had time to go for a quick lap time and I easily set my fastest time of the day. We are now going to the winter tests in South Africa at the start of the year, where we will be up against all the other teams in the 2001 WSBK championship."

"I would love to have continued until the sun went down," said Ben Bostrom. "Today it was fantastic at the Valencia circuit. The slightly cloudy sky allowed us to test until quite late in the afternoon. I tried out some excellent tyres and worked on the final set-up of my 996 Factory. The two days have been very intense but riding a bike is never hard work. It's just a great pleasure."

From the release:
Ben Bostrom and Troy Bayliss today lapped within a whisker of the best time ever achieved at the Valencia track, recorded earlier this year by Kenny Roberts Jr. on a 500cc GP bike (1m35.133s).

Final lap times:
Bostrom: 1:35.33
Bayliss: 1:35.28

Both riders were on the 2001 bikes with the Testa engine.