Ten Kate Junior STK team gears up for home round

Da **Bonbon_uccia46** Dom Apr 10, 2011 2:20 am

Article from http://www.worldsbk.com/en/news/5-news/7029-ten-kate-junior-stk-team-gears-up-for-home-round-debut.html

The Ten Kate Junior Team has recently been gearing up for the opening rounds of the Superstock 1000 FIM Cup and the UEM European 600 Superstock Championships which both get underway next week at Assen.

Team riders Michael van der Mark (photo) from the Netherlands and Italian Luca Verdini made progress in recent testing at Valencia and Aragon, the Dutchman aiming for the best settings on his Honda CBR600RR machine, while Verdini focused on getting used to his new Honda CBR1000RR Fireblade and the team.

Superstock 600 rider van der Mark declared: "It takes some time to get back the feeling after the long winter break. We tested a lot of different settings, but more important I made a lot of mileage to get back in my rhythm. At the tests things went better than expected."

Luca Verdini, who makes his debut with the Dutch team in Superstock 1000 after coming close to winning the Italian CIV title last year, added: "I'm very happy after the first tests. The cooperation with the team is perfect. It feels like we've been working together for years. The Ten Kate Honda CBR1000RR Fireblade is tuned very well and so is the base set-up. Of course, the real work starts yet but right now I'm very satisfied."

Team boss Ferry Schoenmakers, who has been a stalwart of Superstock racing for many years with his Ten Kate Junior team, was also confident for the season ahead after his riders' first outings: "We are very happy after the first tests of 2011. It's always exciting to see how it goes with the riders and the team after a long winter. Fortunately we have had no problems and both drivers were able to complete the full testing program. Hopefully we can keep this upward trend going."

Last weekend the team took part in the first round of the Dutch championship at Assen, with Luca Verdini in Superbike and Michael van der Mark in Supersport, both on their Superstock-spec bikes.