Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

D n ptire test u lo ----- (Left ) Australian Anthony Gobert, a Daytona rookie, turned the second quickest lap limes on his Muzzy Kawas aki. (Above) Scali Russell chats with Jamie James on the pit wall . Most of them we re s tab le, and to be honest with you most o f th em' w ere prett y close in per forman ce . After two or th ree laps the tire just wa nts to spin off o f every corner, some b ett er th a n others, some fall off and stav at a cons istent level. Some of them falloff and continue to fall off and it's harder to keep' up your lap times . "The re wer e a cou ple that I thought wou ld d o it. Th ere were ones tha t I Four is enough M 38 think that's a positive. As far as the approach to the test, it's th e same. It' s fairly easy for me when the bik e is working good . The re are a lot of different lines that you can tak e at Daytona. I found what works for me and I had some trouble with the chicane a litt le more than I normallv w~uld . I di dn't feel comfortable there." Russ~ll pu t the problem to the steel brakes mandated bv th e AMA for 1994 (see sideba r). "Stee l brakes are h~avier and that ma kes a big difference on steering the bike into fast corners," he added . Still he set fast time on bo th the Su perbike and, in a rare outing. on the Supersport bike. "We wan ted to get some input from him," Johnson said. "I thi nk more than anything. we just put out a kind of carrot ou t there for the oth er guys to shoot at. If you run around at two minutes it tells you the bike's as good as before. If you run around there to where I think the bike ought to be running. 1:58s, then that gives the guys who are racing kind of a target pace. Then- they understan d that the bike has the potential. Now it' s down to them to get the job done. That w as probably the main could go ou t and run, like, 51, 52s on," Russell said . The bulk of the testing fell to Russell an d Jam es, two vet eran rid ers who set their bikes up wi th baselin e settings and tried not to change them. The y also tried to m ain ta in iden tica l fuel load s. An y va riation in sus pensio n or fuel weight durin g a test se r ies w ould upset the results. The riders we re given a series of tires with similar cha racteris tics in either co m po u n d or co n s tr ucti o n a n d go through them , u suall y getti ng enoug h fe edb ack after six laps to m ake a n informed opinio n. The third day, Saturda y, was confirmation day for the data they'd ga there d fro m the first two days. "There are a lot of things you look reason for that. I wanted to send a messa ge to them and also I wanted to know how good the bike works." Picotte, like Crevier, will be contesting the 600 Supersport championship. Daytona was his first time on both UZZy Kaw asaki crew chief Steve Johnson came to of the Kaw asakis after racing Ducatis the past few years. Daytona with d iffer ent plans for his four rid ers, " Yo u ' ve got to ke ep more corner speed and th e Scott Russell, Steve Crevier, and newly signed powerband is different," Picotte noted of the ZX-7 SuperPascal Picotte and Anthony Gobert. Of the four, only bike . "It's much easier to brake harder, later. There' s Au stralian Gobert hadn't been to Daytona. The 19-yearmore weight on the front. The front end is more easy to old from Dapto, Au stralia, had joined the team at the feel. I'd like to keep the same lines I u sed wi th th e final World Superbike race at Phillip Island, Australia, Ducati, but with more corner speed, it' s going to be where he rode to a win and a third place. tough." Picotte, who was on the pole for the 1994 Day"For instance, Anthony (Gobert), here's a guy that's tona 200 at 1:50.068, clocked a best of 1:52.4. fairly new to the team although he's already done very Crevier was also getting u sed to new machinery. well with the team so he 's proven his ability at the world Though it was similar to what he'd raced in 1994, he said le vel," Johnson said. "Bu t he'd nev er been to Daytona the "b ikes are a lot better: The 600 is a vast improvement. before. Our objective there wa s to give him this year's I'm pretty impressed with what it does. I can go deeper on baseline for the race and let him ride through two days the brake markers in a safer way . It's lighter feeling and it with that. On the last day we tried a couple of th ings has a broad powerband. Every track, I should be able to with him. He ended up putting in over 200 miles a day. drop a second a lap ." Crevier found that the Superbike, He did more in those three days of mileage than I'Mbet which will be upgraded before Daytona, handled bumps he 's done in his whole career. He • better and had more low end. just never had that opportunity - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - Gobert's best time was a 1:51.9, before, and his career is so new second only to Russell in time and and youn g. This (1994) wa s only first in enthusiasm. his second season. For Scott (Rus"I enjoyed it straight away. I sell) his agenda was tires and knew after the first few laps I was brakes. With Pascal we gav e him going to enjoy it, " Gobert said the baseline that Scott and Anthoafter quickly sizing up the 3.56n y had a nd Jet him ju st ride mile course . " Yo u can have a around on the bike and then make good time in the fast left-ha nder in di v id u a l changes that he and out of s ix you can spin the required." tire and ride sideways. I love high Steve Crevier, who is returning s pee d tracks. On the banking I for his second yea r on the AMA was try ing to figure out how high Superbike team, needed tim e to to be an d when to drop down . ge t used to the new bikes, both Th at's where the tim e is . The the Superbike and the new ZX-6 majority of the time is made on Supersport bike. Johns on sai d that the banking." the AMA Superbike team wo uld Gobert sli d off on the secon d be campaigni ng the 1994 ZX-7Rs d ay, ge ttin g too hot into turn six th a t Ru ssell and Te rry Rymer and s li di n g into the "in-out" rode in this year's World Superbetween turns one and six . The bike series. bike preceded him up newl y "Last year I was hurt, my leg built-up banking into the air and was hurting a little bit and I when he came to a stop he looked ended up stopping the last day," up and saw the bike above him. Russell said. "I went faster this He quickly rolled out of harm's year .than I did last year and I way uninjured.

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