RACER TEST
R Suzuki GSXR750 Superbike
sett
lin e handle w ell e no ug h to pu t it s
undoubted power to the road .
Sur e, there have been mom ents o f
promise: Scott Russell's near victory in
the new Suzuki's debu t race at Daytona
last year; John Reynolds' fifth place at
Monza in m id -'96; James Wh itham's
pai r of third-place finishes a t Hockenheim and Monza this season; and occasional good results in the AMA Superbike and German Pro Superbike series.
But, basicall y, it's takin g fa r longer
tha n anyone ex pec ted - and especially
Suzu ki, I'm sure - to turn a bike that on
paper has all the makings of a consistent
race-winner at the hig hes t level into just
tha t.
There is one country where this is an
exception: Au stralia. In what is surely
o ne o f the three mo st hotl y co ntes ted
na tional superbik e se ries anyw he re in
th e w orld - fo ug h t ou t by importer
teams from Duca ti and three of the four
ja pa nese manufacturers with machinery
that is at most one level of specifica tion
dow n fro m World Super bike (and
whic h h a s p ro du ce d Tr oy Corse r,
Ant hony Gobert and Kirk McCarthy as
cha m pions in s uccessive sea s ons ) Su zuki won its fir st Aussie superbi ke
title in nine yea rs, straight ou t of the box
last season with the new GSXR750. This
title came thanks to former 500cc GP
By Alan Cathcart
Photos by Paul Barshon
uzu ki' s inability to turn its new
"" GSXR750 into a re gular to p -l O
points scorer at World Superbike
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