Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

approa ch the tim es he did here last yea r and the times he did d uring q ualifying fo r th e Da y ton a 200. Th e Austra lian , showed up o v erw e ight a n d s a id h e wasn' t in s ha pe to put the Du ca ti 916 throug h its paces. And he wasn't happy - w i th the prog res s of the n ew bik e , .. s hi p ped directly from th e fact ory . Ducati World Superbike race team manager Davide Tardozzi, along with a host I o f en gineers, helped th e V&H Ducati I team at the test. ~ Then came Yamaha's Rich Oliver on last vear's Yamaha YZR750. Th e new R7 is o~ the way, though no delivery date nhas been set. Beh ind O liver came Aaron Yates in lis shakedown cruise aboard the Mu zzy Kawasaki. Ya tes was the sale rid er o n the Mu zzy ZX-7 Su pe rbike , with Dou g Chand ler sit ti ng th e test ou t while he, Kawasa ki a nd Mu zz y so rt o u t so me questions he had abo ut his contract wi th the team. By th e tim e those questions were resol ved, it was too late for Chandle r to come . The team was also down a technician, a s C handler's long ti me tuner, Gary Med ley, had defected to the Vance & Hines team . Thus th e Muz zy crew was able to co nce nt ra te o n Yates , w ho was o ne of only a few riders to fit a qualifying tire. With the "Q" fitte d , Yates clocked a 1:51.03 , 1.3 seconds fa s ter than th e 1:52.42 he did on a race tire. "All th e new tires seem to be reall y good ," Yates said . "I' ve been running last year's race tire and yesterday, w hen 1 started with it, it was spinning - it was . p retty slippery out there. Then we went to th e new ti res and they were rea lly good. We went back to the old ones an ? then tried so me stuff today and I got It working p ret ty fair. Yesterd ay , I probably di d the most consecutive .laps . I was a little m ore uncomfortable o u t t here yeste rday, just kin d of getting into th e mode of the new bike and all. Tod ay I found I wa nted to try a few things here and th ere, to try to make the thing better . They see m to hang in there good, so th a t' s w hat we needed . We' ll just have to see how it goes in March." Th e tire tha t failed Bostrom had 25 la ps on it, accordi ng to Dunlop 's road race coordina tor, Jim All en . Bos trom (continued on page13) Mu77V K saki awa and I'm really enjoying it. Irs a lot of fun to ride and it seems to work pretty well ." .. . As to how it compares to the Su zuki GSX-R750, Yates said: "It's jus t different. It feels bigger, it feels fa tter, it's a little lower : It seems to be a little easier to ride. I'm not reall y so much on the edge. But I haven 't reall y p u shed it real hard ; awasaki wasn 't at full stre ng th, eit he r, w ith DougCha~- most of the time you're pushing it hard, you're pretty much on dl er opting no t to make the trip after nearl y ~esol v~,ng hIS the edge. It seems to be, like the~ say, rider-friendly. I' ~ really contract con cerns WIth M uzzy and Kawasaki (see In the enjo ying it. It hasn't done anythmg odd or anythmg like tha t. Wind"). That left the Superbike to Aaron Yates, wi th MIke Hale Every lap I'm going a little bit fas ter." Yates said that he wasn't a heavy fron t-end user but that co m ing in to put so me tim e in alo ng WIth Yat es on th e ZX-6 and to tr yout the Mu zzy Raptor which th e team may ca m- he'd like a machine he co uld ru n ha rd into the corne r - since h.e . • brakes almost to the apex before ge tting on the throttle to get It paign in the AMA's Pirelli Formula Xtre~e class. . .. After spend ing his whol e career WIth ?u zukl - first WIth turned . He 's been ab le to do that, but he has had to do some Team Su zuki Sport, and most r~cently WIth the Yos himura suspension work. Suzuki sq uad - Aaron Yates d ecid ed to m ake a move. After "The b ikes were really so ft w he n I got o n th em - not so bei ng cou rted aggressively b y a nu mb~ r of tea~s:_ Yates m uc h the sp rings, because we 'd alrea dy anticipa ted and went op te d to move to th e M u z z y Kawasaki team, g lv mg th e up in the rat es, jus tthe dampening wa s really soft. We ge t all boys in green a fo r midab le li n eu p . The ZX-7 was go~d that stuf f dia led in and it's really made a difference." . enoug h to p ro pel Cha nd ler to second m .the cha.m plOnshlp The 600, he said, feels skinny and tall compared to the Suz~ki . la st yea r, an d only an e ngi ne problem 10 th e fi na l rou nd "It was pr etty differ en t at first," he said. "Jus t the mo re tim e ke p t him fro m co mpeting for the crown. Wha t did Yat e s yo u ge t on it, the better it feels. So I'm looki ng forward to raethi nk of it? . . . ing the thi ngs." "I like it," sai d the Georgia n afte r P?Stl~g the slx ~h -fastest In ad di tion to having to deal with Chandler 's concerns,. the superbike time of the test. "We' re gettmg It dl~led m . Th ere tea m lost long- time crew chief Ga ry Medl ey to Vance & Hines we re a lot of things to change to SUIt me to make It feel goo~ to Duca ti abou t a week prior to the test. That leaves them sho rt on the technical side _ so methi ng which concerns.Chanme . Th e mo re time I get on it; the more it' s feeling like my bike, dl er, but no t Yates . " He's pretty m uc h Doug's guy," Yates said. "They call him the crew chief, but it looks like Steve Johnso n knows pretty muc h every thing . He 's kind of over it all . It's kind of nice of Dou g, not being here this weekend, an d everybody's kin d o f co ncen tra ting on m y stuff." Mike Ha le go t the ca ll fro m Muzzy les s th an a week before the test. "I just ca me d own to keep the dust off of it, I guess," Hale said. "Then we'll see, I guess." As to whether the Mu zzv test wo uld turn into a Mu zzv ride, Hale was non-e~mmittal. 'T~e got one o the r p ossib ility - goi ng back overseas," he said. "It's still kind of ea rly stages for tha t, too. That's it rig ht now. This was a good opportunity to come d own and be at the tes t and get back on so me Dunlops." . Both th e Raptor a nd the 600 had th eir s ha re o f problems over the course of the we ekend, but on Sun day Hale was abl e to finally put his head down . "I did a 56.4 on the 600," Hale sa id of the time · which tied him. with Yamaha ' s Tommy Hayd en for th ird fastest. "It felt a lot bet ter . Th e thing wa s a lot more settl ed , becau se the bike that I rod e yes terday - it was no goo d . So I jumped o n Aaron's bike and r~e it today an d jumped right in there - I guessright In the middle of all the 600 times . I feel pretty good on it. It's good to ge t back on a bike like that, that yo u can really rid e past the limit s. It's rea l forgivi ng ." -I ? Where 's Doug. K (Above) Aaron Yates had his first rides on both the Kawasaki ZX-?R Superbike and the ZX-6600cc Supersport bike . (Right) Mike Hale rode both the Muzzy 600 and the team 's Formula Xtreme Raptor bike. It still isn't known what.Hale will do next year, though his outing on both bikes may earn him a spot on Rob Muzzy 's team. R . ~ a ~ 00 0'\ 0'\ ...... \!:) ' ...... .... (l) .c E (l) u (l) o 11

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