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/127735
iNTERViEW Yoshimura Suzuki's Don Sakakura Many people thought the Yoshimura crew would spend 1995 dusting gas tanks of the superbikes and waiting for 1996 and the new GSXR. Instead the Yosh machines are the fastest in-line fours and Fred Merkel is qualifying the machine on the front row and threatening to win a National. Comment? We did a lot of off-season winter testing with many of the engineers from Japan, from Suzuki. They came over and are now putting a lot of emphasis on AMA Superbike racing, and it is really showing up in the results. We did a lot of development testing, testing a lot of chassis and engine parts. We always thought that we were just down on po\;Ver, for some time we believed that, but engine power hasn't improved for us a whole lot - it's just mainly chassis. Getting the power to the ground and getting the riders comfortable on the bike - that's the m~in improvement. 'It's really starting to show up now. I have been just busying myself by trying new things in engine development. The chassis development is all done in Japan, so we just got the communication between us here in the States and at Suzuki Japan improved and it is really paying off for us. In the past, there were two weak areas for the Suzuki. One, it lost power once it began to get past operating temperature; and two, the chassis wasn't stiff enough. Do you agree with that and how were those two areas addressed in the 1995 machine? I think a lot of both of those factors were symptoms of tire wear. The Suzuki in the past has always qualified fairly well, but has not had much success in the race because you have to run a little harder tire and traction seemed to be our major problem in the past couple of years - the last few years perhaps. This year, traction is improved - it's much better and By Dean Adams Photos by George Roberts t has been some time since Yoshimura Suzuki has won an AMA Superbike race. Miguel DuHamel winning at Heartland Park in Topeka, Kansas, in 1990, to be exact. And if you follow the Yoshimura crew with interest, 1995 probably didn't look any better than, 1994, or any season in recent memory it was common knowledge that the GSXR-based Superbike was too far gone to be whipped into anything resembling a competitive Superbike. Boy, were we wrong. Yoshimura Suzuki has had a gigantic breath of Ute blown into its program by Suzuki Japan, and the day is certainly coming that we will see a Yoshimura Suzuki rider atop the Superbike podium. Presently, the team is undergoing some teething problems, but once the tire selection process and clutch setup are mastered, Yoshimura is going to take a machine that is affectionately called the "stone ax" by competitors and they will run at the front. We spoke with Yoshimura team manager Don Sakakura at Road America during the 600cc Supersport race about the new Yoshimura Suzuki and their new friend, Mr. Acceleration. I 32 we can use the hard tire and it now will last longer. We can now do the race distance af a good.speed. Peak horsepower must be up significantly. We've made some small changes, nothing really major. In horsepower we are relatively dose to everyone else, speeds are fairly dose. We have been working on acceleration and getting the traction. And for the remainder of the season, a few tracks back in fact, are acceleration tracks such as Ohio and we did fairly well there. I was kind of surprised here (Road America) in the speeds because we were pretty dose. But another thing is that the riders are making a big difference this year: Fred (Merkel) has brought a new dimension to our team. He's very aggressive and he and the other riders seem to work fairly well in any kind of development - chassis development or engine deVelopment situation. So his showing up has really helped the team out a lot. The last few races ... everybody has the fire inside, but now it's coming out and it's really good for the morale of the team to be able to run up front as we now C3!1. When do you expect to get a 1996 platform or Superbike? We haven't heard. I have heard that it is quite a bit different, but that is about the extent of it. Also, we won't do the World Superbike race at Laguna because Suzuki does not have an official team - but next year, with the new bike, they may. The big airbox is back on the Superbike. That's helped a little bit. It's not a tremendous gain or anything. We really surprised ourselves in getting the bike to handle and getting the riders comfortable on the bike - it's making quite a bit of difference. What is the theory behind who gets what here? Does the really good stuff