Voltcom Suzuki’s Alex Lowes has found the confidence that he lost halfway through the World Superbike season after a successful test in Jerez, where he came out on top of the combined timesheets after the four day session.

The Derby-based rider feels that he is already performing better on his new Suzuki – compared to last year’s bike and felt comfortable on the machine and has found an engine specification that he enjoys. 2014 was a rookie year for Lowes in the World Superbike class, and he even admitted that
he sometimes forgot that and pushed too hard – and ended up crashing.

He now feels a more mature rider and has learnt from his mistakes from last year. He is staying with the Paul Denning outfit for another season, but this time he will have the experienced MotoGP rider Randy De Puniet as his garage buddy, and Lowes is looking forward to battling it out with him next year.

“The bike has not changed too much but the rules in the championship has a bit and now there are limits on electronics and the engine spec is quite different. I didn’t know what to expect as it was next year’s bike - but it went well. It is working better than last year and I enjoyed riding again and I can go into next year with renewed optimism,” said Lowes, speaking to bikesportnews.com

“We tried a few different engine specifications and I felt comfortable and confident. But I struggled with confidence this year and I felt that I got some back in the year. I was a rookie and I didn’t know most of the tracks and I broke my tibia and in the first race and struggled to get back.

“At points I forgot to be mature as I crashed a bit too much and made mistakes and this is the calmest I have been in a while and I am now in the best place I have ever been in. It is the same team and Paul Denning is a great man, and some of the guys I used to work with in Honda will come into the team next year too. I am not saying I will win the championship but we will see how the first couple of rounds go. Randy de Puniet is great, and I think will learn a lot from him – but the main aim is to beat your team mate - and I want to beat him.”