Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Michelin tire test (Left) Australian Kirk Mccarthy had his first laps of the Daytona International Speedway during the Michelin test; McCarthy will compete In the World Superblke Series aboard a factory SuzukI. (Right) Shawn Higbee tested the Ferraccl Ducatl and has since signed a contract that will see him aboard the red V-twins In 1996. (Below) Brit John Reynolds at speed on the Suzuki GSXR750 on the high ban ks of Daytona. program. (Miche lin-sh od bikes finis hed one-tw o-three in the 1995 World Su perbike Champions hip.) Michelin's last win at Daytona ca m e ab oard the p rivateer bike of Jo h n A sh mead in 19 89 and H er ise was h ere, as he was last year 'w h e n Michelin o fficially returned to Daytona, to h elp end that d rough t. He k now s ho w to build a win n in g tir e; m ore im portantl y, h e knows what it takes to safely win. ':8r-~efIY.-:-,-.i:'---. · .. ·pit stops 'have been.the C10wnfull 01 the DUcati: so this year they've set . ·effort·the past lew out to rectify it.,The .tearn showed up with an air . · Jack; rnadejn-house, lor use during the Daytona . ith 200, alOng W a qulck-chanqerear wheelthat ' : used a Formula One-type release button.rln the: . ·1995 Daytona 200, the pitstops lor Ducatl's Carl '. .. · Fogarty, who ~hiSned second, took about 25 sec- .' · ends. During practice' at this test..with Mike .: ·Hale aboard, theytoo k' about 16; an iinprove- : .' 'rnent, but not enough. At the 1995 Bol d'Or, the · . .. .. .' . . . . .. ·French Suzuklteam was 'changing both wheeis 'ing can and a 9011 cart." The last time Shenton' 'arid fueling upin about.nine secoods."Theboys 'worked a race with pits tops was 'the 1992 Suzu- . • ·still have to-work on'that quite a b it," Promotor.' . ka 8-Hour,'where he headed .up the crewfor · Ducati's Troy Corsern oted. ' It wasn't as easy as. . Lucky Strike riders Kel/iQ Schwantz and Doug ' ·what.they thought it was going tobe. They've got .Chandler. Shenton a nd Russell will be .testing in. " the idea. All they've.got to.do is work at it..That's .: 'Jerez, Spain, the week before' Daytone and )'Jill what.the}.- didn't do last.year..Th.,yd idn't pracnce.'.: jet off to Shah' AJam, Malaysia, immediately fol-,' ·eOOugh:. At least it's happening now: here.not 'at...·:.Iowing the race: In all: Hcssellwlll have amonth's Daytonallkeft dldlast year, We were standing like : worth of 500cc testing'belore the Daytona·200.. : this at the race. 'What tire ar;,'we"going to use, . Whether he'llra ce in lucky StrikeSuz uki colors .who's goingtod o this,who's going to do that?" ::'. iss till undecided;' though it' appears likely, " , ' '. ' :' : accordinqto various team. members..Shenton ' .' . -:. " . '. · Theexp erience may come in handya tth e ·.said thai il he'didn't race in Luckycolors, Russell ' · S uz ukB 8.Hour ·some daY."Because the . ··. would not' race' under the colorsof the' Suzuki : desrnodromlc V-iwins aren't as 'durable as the'· W orld SupeCbike tearn.: '.: .. ·Jap"nese 1 0ur:cyIinde( engines, Ducat; has never- .." . . r : ' .' . ' . . . .. .. officially entered the: presttqious Japanese race. " The Suzuki World Su perbike' team had their fi rst: · According to one Ducatf team member,' theY've' ·. OUting on the new GSXR750Tduring a test at the had the twin 'run slx and a hall hours ona dyno '.', new Homestead circuit insouth Florida: Aus-: ' (lOder.racing C ndition's andareconsiderinq pair. ,,· tralian.Klrk McCarthy and Englishman J ohn, O : ing ~ikediale and TroyC orser in this year's race.,.. .Reynolds took part, and.Rey"olds gave the nev i . ' .': '. ': .' . . . .. .. .:. .... .' , · track a'thumbs-up, despite the surface being · Micheli .. brought in three'lire tEi<;:hniciaris'from ' . dus!y·and. sfipper'y., ~ We found it quite hard for Clermont-Ferrand:in Fiance.. who .were essi ted '. 'working on \he 'steering' setup. We 'set:the, bike': s · by the six personnel broughlinfromNorthAmer- up to -turn tight and it works good .there. ':. lea. Between tlie)ires ' which were here lor the :' Reynolds 'said there was' one 'wall Which'would S~iuki test.just alter the. Dunlop test, and this :. need,to beprotected by an air fence. but, 'other · test.'there wer:e close.to.300 tires brought in: in.' ·· thanthaU t was 1J10re than raceworthy.: . . ·.. . . . · 25 different coriliguratiO s Of different .00"1-,:· n' years:' pounds, ~sing~·. and constructlons.: 8 ,- ' Bart~I~" Har1ey.Davids~n·s Shawn -Higbee ws. a .. '. . . ., : ,, : : ,..... pleasantly-surprised to get an offer lrom a Grand Stuart Sh"';'tcin, the crew chieffo r Lucky'· Prix·team. "Ihad a GP·team·call andask me il I:· .St rike Suzukr'sScctt Russele was.last at Day. . wanted to'be a' test' rider. I Was taken aback: It ' tona in' 1985 when he was in 'ctiarge 'of Freddle .:was the neW Elf 500l eam and they we're looking . '.Spencer's '250.0.0 GP·~i nning team. 'Asked what : for riders.' Higbee said the connection had been he thought'it took to win the Daytona 200,'the . made through raCing teacher K Code arid that: eiih · Englishman joked,'A big marrto hold the refuel: '. they had contactedotherAmencenrdera. . :: ' , '. - ,J . __: ' . .: ..... • :. . . . . . .' ". . ".' . -,.' . ' : .' ',: • "As always, w e're concerned about safety m ore th an anything else," Herise s aid in English , w ith a th ick Fr ench accent. "We cannot take too m uch risk to win." Th e risk is in buil din g a ti re th at will not com e apart under the unique forc es of Da yt ona ' s b an k ing . Bo th Corser and H al e chunked tires d u ri ng the course of the test, but th at's all p art of test in g. A tire need s to last abo ut 20 laps, enough to m ake it betw een gas stops, and none m ade it that far . Part of th at was att ributab le to rain early on th e third d ay, when en d urance testing was planned, The trac k wasn' t ready u ntil lat e m orn in g and w as never compl et ely d ry . And part of it was due to a lack of m an power. " I woul d ha ve liked to h ave done a lo t more laps than w h a t I h ad sin ce I came here," Corser sa id during the second day of th e test. "But just sort of getti ng .the tires fit ted an d m akin g su r e they were all rig ht. Unfortunatel y, I d on't think the guys have got all their eq ui pmen t what they should h ave up th ere. We're w astin g half a d ay. Yesterday, we sat till 12:30 until we go t on th e track." "I n eve r p u t th a t m any la p s o n a tire," Lucky Strike Suzuki's Scott Russell said, "Every tire I went out on ... Yeah, they' ve got a 16,5 that w orks good. But it lasts two lap s. If they want to use th at tir e th ey can go build one and m ake it work, w he ther they wi ll or not, I don't kn ow. That w ould be the best thing th ey coul d d o, I reckon." In previous years, Ru ssell had always been the voice of au thority at these tire tests, but this ye ar the burden fell mostly on Corser . Th ere were a few rea sons for thi s, th e forem ost being that he was on a tested bi ke, one that had finishe d secon d in the 1995 D aytona 200 (w it h Ca rl Fogarty on board) and had a year's .worth of racing development. Also, Russe ll was on a brand -new m achin e and his main w orry was not so much tires, but getting a machin e that could wi n him his fourth Dayt ona 200 in March. "Yeah, las t year I w as th e guy," Russell admits. "Because I coul d go out and run better ti m es and I did a lot m ore la p s . Thi s time, this is more relaxed . When y o u' re out th ere ju s t go in g arou nd, you just get tired in the end and your brain doesn' t work as good . I prefer this more laid -back at mosphere. Go away and com e back, go to lu nch, take an hour, h our an d a half, whatever. It just seemed like th e other one w as a little more high-pressure to ge t back out th ere on the bike, Steve Johnson's stan ding th er e looking at hi s watch, That shi t, I d idn't enjoy ." Being the man m eans a different approach, Co rser sa id , but one th at h e quickly grew comfortable wi th. "Las t ,year when I came here I didn't reall y test tires; th ey gave m e a lot of tires to try and asked me my opinion. That's a lot different than getting every ti re thrown at yo u and yo u ' ve got to fee d back something. Trying to feel if it's m oving a bit more on a different part of th e track or w hatever, more so th an ju st going ou t and just trying to do some' riding to set th e bike up. You 're trying to feel what it's go in g to do , I've got to go out there and feel it and then come in arid tell th em wha t it's d oing, So a lot of the time you' re thinking a lot more abo ut what' s happenin g down h ere so yo u don't make a mista ke, so yo u get it right. Because a lot of times you only get like three or four lap s on a tir e to check it. So th e firs t lap yo u 've got to get going and the second or third laps got to be quick laps so you' ve got to feel w hat it d oes. And then if it's going to chunk, be ready th at you kn ow it's going to do it. It sort of takes yo u r concentration off w hat yo u ' re actually d oing, just to go

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