Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

TEAM LUCKY STRIKE SUZUKI SCott Russell The words did n't match the demeanor. Scott Russell, the undisputed kin g of Dayton a, was talking t-confidently about winning the race in Ma rch, but it w as as if he w as tryin g to convince himself a s mu ch as others. Fo r the first time h e was in an unu s u al a n d unple as a n t position: His be st of 1:50.60 was more th an a second slower than that of th e Promotor Duca ti of Mike H ale an d h e was unable to go any quicker in his first ou ting on the new Suzuki. There will und oubted ly be a nar ro wing of the gap. After all, it was th e first time the new bike wa s being run, but Russell wasn't ha ppy about the times. • "These guys ain't going to f- - go nowhere. They ain't going nowher e. They might do a few . . quick laps , but string them all together... They ain 't go t a tire that'll do 49s all the time, the y ai n't go t one at this point. They may have on e whe n thev come back. If they do, then the Dunlop guys are in trouble. But then I'll ha ve it. . . "For those ~ys to get in the 49s at all says a lot for them and their mo torcycle. Still, ~e Ducati IS aweso me - commg off the comers . You just are no t going to get that kind of grunt with one of these. Don (Sakakura) did split times in the infield ~d Hale had the fastest time through the infield . From turn one to the turnou t onto the banking, a 44.82. My fastest was a 45-flat. We're talking two-tenths of a second. It came from so mewhere. And I got to be lieve it's just gruntin g off the corn er. I don 't believe there 's no way he's going through the comer faster th an I was. "~ think we can win the race on it, the way it sits right now. My bike can get a little bit better. I want to come back and do the CCS race. For the bike to be like it is, rig~t out of the box for me , we' re all ril0t. I think there could be a bit more positive feeling fro m th e front end and some ot the tum-in could be a little bit better, but ~res make a ? ig d ifference right now. A few tricks with the fron t en d might help it a . httl e bit. I think the rear end works pretty good right now. It seems to run on top . 1 drafted past Corser no problem. We're running the same speeds pretty much. I reckon it just needs to be gone through again and if there are any real improvements they can make, do It, and come down and we 'll try to win this thing. "The power 's a lot different (than the Kawasaki). This seems to make more down on the bottom, I think. I think the power's more linear on this than on the Kawasaki. I think it hits a little harder. Kawasakis - the old Kawasakis, I don't know about the new ones - the old one, chassisw ise, seemed to have a little more weight on the front, and w~en Jiou carry more weight on the front, there's a good feeling here. The b ala nce of this ~mg seems to be more rearward, n ot a lot, but jus t n ot as front-endy as the Kaw asaki was. An d then they' re on Miche lins so you're not burning it up as much. "You can't steer it wi th the rear as much. This one, to me, I don't know. I do know, a few tires, yeah, I can bu rn it off coming ou t if I wa nted to. It just doesn't seem that it's as easy. You've really got to stick it to it to make it do it. These things seem to have more side grip, which will be nice in the race. " I think if push comes to shove in the en d of the race and we ha ve to go fast, 1 think we might be in a position to do tha t. We won't know until then. "W,e go t a good test, came away from here with some decent lap times. I mean, hell, r m a second f~ter. than 1 was las t year at this time. Without really going out there and really letting It eat, I can go out and ru n 505 , 50.6. Come in and it's no problem. Last year, r never got there in the test. Even in qualifying it was a push to get into 50. I d id a 49.7, Co rser did a 50-flat. You can cou nt them on one h and. Now you've got the first two rows in 50s already . ou t a n d try to go fast. Which, when you're testing tires you're not really trying to go fast, yo u're just trying to go fast enou gh. "Yesterd ay, quite comfort ably, r was in the 50 ra nge and 49s. If you can do between 49 and 51s all race, yo u've go t a pretty good chance. Last year, it w as 50s at the sta rt and then it went to 525 and 53s before the tir e cha nges. So if we can d o that, if we d o sort of abou t las t year's times, then we're sort of halfway ther e," Cors er concluded. a Troy Corser was the secondquickest superblke rIder during the test and he also did the majority of Michelin's testing, giving feedback on a wide range of different racing slicks. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Mike Hale His ascent to the elite ra nks of mo torcycle road racing has been swift an d steady, an d with his performance during th e Michelin tire test here, Texan Mike Hale continued to prove that he's among the best. His best lap time was a hand-timed 1:49.48 which he di d du ring a string of 49s on a race tire. His was the only tim e under Scott Russell's 1995 pole time of 1:49.852. Only his teammate T roy Corser came close, but no one was better at this test. And he did it despite p robl ems on his number-on e bike that took a day to straigh ten out. "We did 15 laps on one tire and did a 49.5 out of th at stint. It felt pretty good, felt pretty com fort~~::L~~ .Jj~ \ ab le. 1 did a lot of 49s today . With the race tire 1 did mostly 50s. I d id a lot of 49s early on, then settled in . The bike I didn't ride yes terd ay, they figu red out what was wrong with it ab out noon today . "The. cha ssis are different (be~een the RC45 and 'the Ducati), the way they're p roportion ed . The engm es rev di fferently . As far as the ch angeove r, it's coming along pretty good. I'm braking a littl e d ifferently, shifting a little differently, just th e way the bikes handle und er heavy br aking. You ha ve to use rpms a little differ ently. "With the Honda you can rev it and get it sliding. With the Mich elins and the ~ ucati you keep it. in line m?re. I'm slid ing it a lot here at Daytona, for sure. But it' s Just the way the bikes are different. You still wa nt to get hooked up out of the corner, as alwa vs. "There's·d efi'.'ite ly a di fferen ce betw een Dunlops and Michelins, and you just kee p an open .mmd and adapt. There's not such a big difference here at Daytona, but at Indon.esIa and Au s~ralla (for the World Superbike races), the Dunlop seems to be real predictable and slid e more. It see ms to slide more than the Michelin. But the Michelin has really good grip. "Tire warmers h~lp out tremendously here, r noticed . I went out this morning on the first time out WIth new tires on and no tire warmers on , no heat in them - it was so slick. So the res t of the day each time I went ou t r made sure the tire warmers w er e ?~1 ~nd it made a ~ig ~ifference . Soaki ng it all up and learni ng so much right now, It s Just all part of It. r m sure when r come back here in March whea the temperatures are different and the tra ck su rface will p robably be a little differen t, and I'll realize the difference as I get more used to this bike. "Thi s is what I have to work with so I'm going to work the best r can figure it out and adapt and use it to its pot ential to the best I can . The Mich elin tires and the Ducati are capable of winning. It's proven itself. It's jus t up to me to do it. "My A.-bike kept overheating so r didn't even get to ride it today; I've bee n riding the old bike. The fuel pump went out on it. I spen t what felt like forever waiting aro und tod ay. " Troy Corser The March running of the Daytona 200 wi ll mark Corse r's third att empt at winning th e spring classic. He nearl y pull ed it off in his first trip here in 1994, bu t was handi capped by inefficient pit stops. La st ye a r a mechanical problem si delined him while he was leading the race. Afte r that, the Promot or Du cat i rider took on the World Superbike Ch ampion ship where he would finish second to fellow Ducati ri der Carl Fogarty, w in ni ng fo ur races alo ng the w ay . Back for a third try at Daytona in 1996, Corse r left the Speedway secon d fastest to teammate Mike Hal e with a 1:49.90 " I'm fairly happy. r d id a 49 yesterday and I was jus t rid ing aro und . r wasn' t real worried about times . I go t off and got on Mike's bike and within three laps r thi nk I did a 50 dead on Mik e' s bike straigh t away, and there's a bit of a differen ce between my bike and Mike's. "We're fairly happy with the (new 1996) bikes . They make real good power; they'v e ~ot a lot more power than last year. There are a lot of little things, d ifferent suspensIOn, different linkages on the rear, different triple-clamps. You can change the offset real easy. r don 't think it' s handling the banking any better, but it's hard to say because of the tires. I think the tires ar e moving around a lot more than what the bike is. It just seems a lot easier to change d irection on it. "The a<;tu al bike, to. actually ride, physically doesn't feel any different, bu t it just ~and.les differen t. A bit smoother on the back. Now changing the carburetors, getti~g It to come on ~ast ~r slow off the bottom. They've got a lot more no w to play WIth to get the bike s gOlOg good - than what they did last year when they had a few things and the bikes were just good enough. Now they kn ow what th ey' ve got to d o, but they've got a whole lot of little things that they ha ve to put together to get it right to make it work. "That's why we spen t a lot of time in the pits changing little Superbike times (hand-timed) 1. Mike Hale (1:49.48/ 117.062 mph) bits and making sure tha t's right. That' s the time to do it. r did 15 2. Troy Corser (1:49.90/ 116.6 15 mph) laps on one tire and the fastest lap was a 49.6, the slowest lap at 3. Scott Russell (1:50.60/ 115.877 mph) the end of it was a 52, somew here in the 525 for the last maybe 4. John Reynolds (1:52.21/1 14.450 mph) th ree laps, two laps. Then the tire chunked so we can't use that. 5. Kirk McCarthy ( 1:52.60/ 113.819 mphl "Yesterday, qui te comfortably, I ran in the 50 range and 49s, 6. Larry Pegram (1:52.62/ 113.799 mph) qui te coinforta bly. If yo u can do between 49 an d 51s all race, 7. Shawn Higbee (1:52.78/ 113.637 mphl you've go t a p retty good chance. Last year, it was 50s at the 8. Dale Quarterley (1:54.82/ 111.6 18 mph) start and then it we nt to 525 an d 53s before the tire changes. So 9. DamonBuckmaster (1:55.74/ 110.73 1 mphl if w e can do that, if we do sort of about last year's tim es, then 10. Matt Wait (1:56.00/ 110.483 mph) . we're so rt of halfway there." HOW THEY FARED 9

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