The Samsung Crescent Racing team were back on track today (Friday) at Croft as John Hopkins utilised the track time to learn the new circuit before the third round of the championship in May, whilst Jon Kirkham continued to make further improvements at the circuit where he lifted the Metzeler National Superstock 1000 Championship last season.

Hopkins and Kirkham both had a productive day on track as the build up to the opening round continues and now the Samsung Crescent Racing pairing are both ready for their next tests at Brands Hatch and the Snetterton 300 next Tuesday and Wednesday.

Hopkins said: "It has been a good day for us, we had great weather and it gave me the opportunity to do some laps of one of the tracks I have never seen before and that will make it slightly easier when we come here to race. Croft is different to what I have been used to in terms of how bumpy the track is, but I come from a motocross background so they don't really bother me. We were able to make some changes, but the main thing was for me to learn the track and we did manage to get a few clear laps so I am happy with that. It was good to be back on a Superbike again as the last bike I rode was obviously the Suzuki MotoGP bike so it was good to get my head back into Superbike mode before our next tests. We now have a weekend to chill out and then we go to Brands Hatch and Snetterton next week. We have a base setting from Cartagena, so we have a good place to start and now I am ready to learn two more tracks next week."

Kirkham said: "It has been good getting back out on the bike today, although it was pretty busy on track but we did manage to get in some clear laps. We now have a better idea on set-up for when we come back for the round here as we were starting to get into a bit of a rhythm. We were happy with what we managed to achieve today and now we are looking forward to getting out on track again next week."