Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

ROAD RACE were brought and Picotte got hold of one to clock his best time. Muzzy Kawasaki's Rob Muzzy was incensed when he found out about the qualifiers, though nothing except bragging rights was really at stake. Even without the qualifier, Picotte's (Right) Young Tommy Hayden puts the Muzzy Kawasaki superbike through its paces. Hayden will join Chandler on the team's superbike in 1997 while teaming with Todd Harrington on Rob Muzzy's 600cc Supersport bikes. (Left) Georgian Aaron Yates returns for Yoshimura Suzuki in '97 and he'll ride a new GSXR600 in the 600cc Supersport class as well as his _GSXR750 superblke in the Nationals. Yates had a crash during the Dunlop tests, but escaped uninjured Team Muzzy Kawasaki T his is a team which hadn't won much of anything since capturing the World Superbike ChampiorlShip in 1993 with Scott Russell. That's only three years ago. But because of the success that Rob Muzzy has enjoyed, it seemed like a much longer drought than it actually was. Everything that Muzzy did in the United States over the past few years seemed to go wrong and no amount of money or effort could change that. In 1995, Muzzy suffered a setback when Russell defected to the Lucky Strike Suzuki GP team early in the World Superbike season and the AMA Superbike team felt the reverberations. Things were different in 1996. Again there was very little success on the World Supcrbike front, but in an odd way the failure of that effort was partially responsible for the success in America. Once the Kawasaki (actory realized that its greatest hope for a title was in the United States, it allowed Muzzy, who was contracted to attend all of the World rounds, to concentrate on the AMA series. Whether he was there or not, ·the AMA Superbike team was a dynamo, gaining confidence with every race, consistently finishing near the top, and at the front when it counted most, in the title-clinching final race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. The team enters the 1997 season with the number one on the front of Doug Chandler's bike and a year's development on theZX-7R. Muzzy found out late last year that he wouldn't be asked to continue running Kawasaki's World Superbike effort. It was more a relief than a disappointment. And by choosing German Harold Eckl, whose experience is in nmning the Mohag Aprilia 250!:c GP team, the factory has shown that it's reduced its commitment to the series. Leaving the grueling World Superbike trail will allow Muzzy and all of his best people to concentrate on defending their AMA Superbike title, and try to win a 600cc Supersport title to go with it. . '1 think it'll strengthen our team considerably," Muzzy said during the Dunlop test. Already Steve Johnson, who headed the World Superbike effort, is back with the American team and was hard at work in Daytona. "Already everybody has more energy, excitement, enthusiasm than before," Muzzy said. "Even testing-wise. We can concentrate our effort. That's one direct benefit for our performance." The change will also allow Muzzy to do what he most enjoys doing - hands-on development of the machinery. The dividends were paid during the year in the steady progress of the '96 ZX7R. "Everything is different from when we were here last year,' Chandler said after selling fast time at Daytona. "In March we were fighting a lot of having too much weight on the front end and the rear always wanting to come around, off throttle, on throttle. It was just a battIe. Now it's- got really good balance. You can charge the corner; you don't get a whole lot of rear wheel sliding. It's got really good drive on throttle, off the corner.1 think that's the major improvement. And we've been running a lot better. When we came here in March, the things were stones. I, myself, wanted to race the '95 because it was a better bike. Reliability-wise, no. But now this is by far the superior bike." Chandler was testing both of his 1996 race bikes with a few new modifications, one of which was a single-sided swingarm. The piece was developed mostly for street use by RAM, a com- times were near the top of the superbike list and his 600cc Supersport times were in a world of their own. His best of 1:55.89 was not only over a second better than DuHamel's time from a year ago, but was nearly as fast as teammate Aaron Yates' 750cc Supersport time from last December. DuHamel qualified on the pole in. 1996 with a time of 1:57.393. "I did 55.9 two laps in a row, and 56flat the lap before," Picotte said. "Miguel's best lap time by himself was made his Muzzy Kawasaki debut at the fall NASB I F-USA races, and Todd Harrington, who rode this year for 4&6 Cycles. Hayden put time on both the superbike and 600 and ran a simulated race with Harrington on the final day of the test. Their times were comparable - Harrington's best was a 1:57.59, a tenth faster than Hayden's best, though they ran much of the time in tandem. "It was kind of a simulation race to look at the tires," said Harrington, who deemed the test a success. '1 was supposed to do 18 laps, but I didn't see the in board, so I did a couple more. J did 20, something like that." It was only about a month prior to the December 9-11 test that Harrington got the call from Muzzy with the offer to join the team. He said he was "bummed out when something hadn't happened sooner" because he'd talked with Yamaha and Vance & Hines. "1 was nmning out of options. They were closing." Then Muzzy called, asking if Harrington wanted to race the 600cc Supersporl class again this year. He'd won his first 600cc Supersport race at Elkhart Lake on his way to a 11th-place finish in the championship on a private Kawasaki. He noticed right away how much more potent the Muzzy 600 was. '1t accelerates a lot harder, it hooks up a little better," Harrington said. "All in all, it's a better package. Acceleration off the comers, it really pulls hard." "Mine ran pretty good," Harrington added later. '1t was a fast bike, but it just never accelerated like this. This thing really pulls out of the corners. 1 don't know if irs jetting or what, but it works well. It has a lot better traction. 1 think a lot of that is because of the new tires. J was trying a lot of different things just to get a feel for whether or not it's in the ballpark. I was just trying to get headed in the right direction, because apparently they weren't real sure after (Mike) Smith ran it last year." Hayden did double duty, steadily dropping his superbike times into the l:53s while keeping up with most of the pack on the 600. One of the reasons Muzzy was convinced to sign him up was that he was able to make the main event at a Grand National Championship Mile in one of his first attempts. Those were some of the skills that Hayden was putting to use here. "I was getting a lot more used to sliding it," said Hayden, who gradually began hanging pany in Monte Carlo. Muzzy agreed to help develop it with an the back out exiting tum one. "J'm not SO cautious." . eye toward using its quick-change capabilities in the 200. Hayden had never taken part in an organized tire test like It's a little heavier than the stock unit, but about the same this and wasn't asked to try a lot of different superbike tires. weight as the quick-change unit used exclusively for the 200. "I'm just trying to get track time," he said. Chandler didn't think it was dramatically better and set his fast But on the 600 it was different. He learned a lot about tire time using the conventional swingarm. Muzzy wasn't sure if conservation during his and Harrington's mock race. they'd use the one-sided piece in March, but if they do, it'll be "You can tell when they're brand new and fresh and when its only appearance. they're worn in good after the 10th or 11th lap," Hayden said. Joining Chandler at the test were Tommy Hayden, who "They didn't get any worse."

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