Remy Gardner has revealed the dates on which he is likely to test a Superbike for the first time, following his exit from MotoGP.
The 2021 Moto2 champion lost his ride within the KTM stable and has since inked a deal to ride for the GRT Yamaha team in the Superbike World Championship.
He will therefore not be cutting laps of Valencia on December 8, two days on from this coming weekend’s MotoGP finale, but is set to be in action in Spain soon after.
“I think [my] first test is December 11-13, at Jerez,” said Gardner.
“So not until the end of the year, but hopefully I can get an R1 before then and spin some laps on Pirellis.
“That’d be good. More than anything, just so I can understand the tyres a bit and so it’s not all completely new.”
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The Australian is currently 23rd in the championship, tied on 10 points with Tech3 KTM team-mate Raul Fernandez and Yamaha test rider Cal Crutchlow, who was only brought into the RNF team five rounds ago when Andrea Dovizioso retired prematurely.
Gardner’s struggles continued last time out at Malaysia’s Sepang when he finished 18th.
“Not fun, not good,” he said of that race.
“First few laps were not bad when our rear tyre was still there; I could manage.
“Straight away after a few laps I just put in like tyre-saving mode basically, and traction control, but made a mistake in Turn 8 and ran wide.
“I was pushing hard to come back and my rear tyre was just dropping and dropping and just felt like I was on ice. I had nothing left.
“We’ve just got no grip, no rear grip. Same as Phillip Island. I don’t know what’s happening or why it’s happening, but… I don’t really care anymore, to be honest.”
Practice at the Circuit Ricardo Tormo starts this Friday.
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