Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127710
RACE Michelin tire test - - - - - - - - -- - By Henny Ray Abrams he buzz p receding the recently completed Miche lin tire tests at Daytona Internationa l Speedway wasn't about race compo unds, it was about racers specifically, which ones would be there. The list of prospective attendees included former 250cc World Ch ampion and ex-works Cagiva rider John Kocinski, AMA Superbike Cha mpion Troy Corser, form er World a n d AMA Superb ike Cha m pio n Dou g Polen, an d th ree-time Wo rld Champ ion Freddie Spen cer. Of those four, two showed up, and of those two, the one yo u'd least expect to show up a nd se t fast time ac tua lly did th e busin ess. . . Fred d ie Sp en cer, after no t h a ving been on a race bike in 15 months, and h a ving been away fro m Da yt ona for ove r two and a half yea rs, and admitted ly out of shape, tu rn ed in the si ngle fastest unofficial lap during the tw o-da y test, held December 19-20 at Dayt on a. Spen cer, a nd his 1995 Fas t by Ferracci teammate Mike Sm ith, wer e abo ard the Du cati 916 for the first time and Spencer adjusted so quickly he surprised even himself. "Yeah , I'm su rp rised, " he admit ted, "because I hadn't ridden. I really didn't have an y idea how quick I was going. Wh en I wa s riding th is bike I didn't know how com fortable or how quick I would adjust to it. As the da y went on, at the end of Monday, I really didn 't T A a .~ ~ 10 kn ow how fast I cou ld go on Tuesda y. Tuesday mo rn ing, late Tuesd ay morning when I did those 1:53s is w he n I started to feel comfortable. The effort to d o the 53s was less than the effort the day before. My timing, ge tting a feel for how the power com es on. Wh en I d id the 51s (toward the end of th e test on Tuesday afternoon) the effort was kind of similar to the 53s." Spencer' s best lap was a hand-timed 1:51.8, a time that he nearly eq ua lled on a nu mber of laps surrounding his best. But it was somewhat decei ving. He did the limes on a tire that isn't considered ra ce co mpound at Da y ton a a n d the o the r riders on ha n d w e re n ' t fa r off. Polen's bes t was a 1:51.9 7, and dropping, on a race tire, and he did a who le stri ng of 52.4s, pu tting in a dozen laps at a lime wi th lap times varying no more than one-tenth of a second. The Cas trol H ond a rid er was aboard h is back -u p World Superb ike Hon d a RC45 w ith an engi ne th at wasn' t sui ted to the h igh banks of Dayt ona. Muzzy Kawasaki's Scott Russell turned a best lap of 1:50.62 in last month's Dunl op tests and he ran a string of ·l :51s. Mike Smith clocked 1:52.0 in his Fast By Ferracci debut an d Hond a's Shinya Takeishi managed a 1:53.6 on his firs t trip to Dayt on a, but h e crashed , uninju red, in the West Horseshoe on Tuesd ay morn in g, en ding hi s d ay . Te am Valvoline Suzuki's Michael Mar lin and Chuck Graves also tested ; Martin's best w as 1:54.2 on th e Te a m Su z uki , End urance GSXR1100 with Graves concen tra ting on the 750 Supersport bike and turning a bes t lap of 1:57.8. Still , Spence r' s per forman ce w as encou raging, more so considering that he w as ove rwe ig h t and in need of a t raining program , s o m e th ing he ' s vowed to undertake for the seas on. Spencer will be teamed with Mike Smith . and Tiger Sohwa on Ferracci 's bikes for the upcoming season. (See sidebar.) (Top) Three-time World Champion Freddie Spencer was impressive in his debut ride on the Fast By Ferracci Ducat!. (Above) Spencer and EraJdo Ferraccl chat. Team own er Er aldo Ferracci had hoped to d o an endurance test on Wednesday, but the da y was rained out and he headed b ack to Philad elphi a with significant data gathered from the test.