Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Test , Dunlop's Daytona tire test The stopwatch says By the time the test came to a close on Mon d ay afternoon, the lap times for the top men we re as follows: Vance & Hines Duca ti Erion Racing Honda Yoshimura Suzuki Yoshimura Suzuki Team Yamaha I Team Kawasaki Vance & Hines Ducati American Honda Team Kaw asaki Am erican Honda Yoshimura Suzuki Harley-Davidson Ha rley-Davidson 1:50.19 1:50.66 1:51.00 1:51.12 1:51.33 1:51.45 1:51.51 1:51.60 1:51.83 1:51.90 1:52.00 1:52.20 1:52.50 600 1. Nicky Hayd en 2. Tommy Hayden 3. Migu el DuHamel 4. Jamie Hacking 5. Josh Ha yes 6. Kurti s Robert s 7. Aaron Ya tes 8. Jason Pridmore Eric Bo strom had a lot 01 new thi ngs to get used to in hi s first test as a fact ory Kawasaki rider. The Californian makes the sw itch alter two years on Hondas. He did rather well , all things considered. Superbike 1. Troy Bayliss 2. Kurtis Roberts 3. Mat Mladin 4. Aaron Ya tes 5. Jamie Hacking 6. Eric Bostrom 7. Steve Rapp 8. Miguel DuHamel 9. Doug Chandler 10. Nicky Hayden 11. Jason Pridmore 12. Scott Russell 13. Pascal Picotte American Honda Team Yamaha American Hond a Team Yamaha Erion Honda Erion Honda Yoshimura Suzuki Yoshimu ra Suzuki 1:54.79 1:54.79 1:54.82 1:55.00 1:55.62 1:55.66 1:57.34 1:57.52 ()()wnsized a maha p rom oted Tommy Ha yden to it s Superbike team, jettisoned Rich Oliver, and kep t Jamie Hack ing. Like his colleagues at Yoshimura Suzuki, team manager Tom Halverson thinks downsizing is the way to go. "Jus t the amount of crew that we had was definitely sprea d thin for the amo u nt of work we had to do, for su re," he said . "There' s defi ni te ly a lot mo re foc us . We've got more defined duties now. Last year we had to do so man y roles becau se there weren ' t enough peo ple on the team , so the mechani cs were doi ng machining and electrical and we were all just pretty overloaded . This year we were defi nitely able to orga nize it a lot better." Th is yea r they're a lso sta rti ng with so me knowledge of the R-7, which they took de livery of halfwa y in to the season at Road Atlanta. "We took it out of the box in Atlanta , and every time we rod e it after tha t was a t a race," Ha lver son sa id . "We d id n' t really test until the last month at Willow. ow we ca n mak e so me mo re dras tic cha nge to try to dial it in, w here we were just kind of doing sma ll stuff at the races. The re's d efinitely a lot more in it tha t w e're fi nding now, in th e s us pe nsion adjus tmen t. We need to get it to hook up a little better on the slow tracks, the slower corners, wi th a lot of lean ang le. We just basically need to come off slowe r corners better. We had it pretty dialed in at A tlant a an d the fas ter tracks. It wo rked pretty good th e re, bu t w hen we go t to tig h ter tracks , especially like Colorado at the end of the year, we were having some problem s. We didn ' t really have a goo d, solid direction to go and we struggled a little bit there. We still need to go to a tighter track like that to find ou t w ha t that problem ~as . But we'v e go t Ande rs (Andersson) from th e (Oh lin s) factory here. He w ork ed with th e World Superbike guys this year, and with the guys at Suzuka, an d he's going to be a big help, too. I think he' s showing us we're definit ely not far off, )I that we' re very close, I think, to w here (Noriyuki) Haga ended up with his chassis." In addition to the machin e the team raced last year, there was a second R-7 at Daytona, one with a dry clu tch , a different tr an sm ission a nd some othe r trick parts from Jap an . Partl y because of limited track time due to incleme nt wea ther, Hac king wasn't able to get on the new bike until the third day, bu t he was clearly looking forw ard to it. "This is the first time we've had an R-7 at Daytona, so w e' re pretty impressed with wha t we' re d oin g," Hacking sa id . "We' re jus t as fas t as we were on the old YZF and the bike feels a lot more stable than our old bike, so eve rybo dy's ha ppy ov er here. Th e one I ro de pretty much a ll d ay today is the same thing I rode at Pikes Peak. But ou r new bike is pretty qu ick - it' s wha t we've been waiting for. It just came . Ho pefu lly, we can keep it the rest of the year." Hacking was spectacular at times last year, but he wa sn't a tit le th reat d ue to inconsis te nc y. Halverson would like to see that cha nged . "A couple of the cras hes were really, I hate to say , du mb," Halverso n said . "Like th e one a t Mid-Ohio - th a t was, I d on 't know, kind of inexcusable. But things happen , for w h a tev er rea son . Sa m e th in g wh en he was going into the pits at Elkhart. That was the same thing. He looked back and all of a su dde n he' s off the track and in the grass . He tries real hard and likes to be up fro n t. H e' s kind of go tte n now to [the point w here) he's either going to win or pitch the thing d ow n the road , which is good on one end, but not so much on the other - especially when you' re going for a cha mp ions hip. You 've jus t go t to back it off and take the third or the four th. He's learning, d efin itely. I' m not ta king a nythi ng away fr om him; if th e b ike' s no t righ t, he' ll go 100 percent, where non e of th e oth er gu ys I've ever had have d on e that. We just have to tone it down a little bit and he' ll be all righ t." Tom my Hayden spent most of his time dialing in the Yamaha R-6, which was little cha ng ed from th e bik e he ro de to a close se cond to his brot her Nic ky in the 600cc Su pe rs port class in 1999. H ay de n had also tested at Willow Sp rings, bu t he did n' t spend much time on the Superbike at either test. Still, he wa s able to compare it to the Kawasaki z:x.-7, the last su perbike he rod e w hen he raced for Muzzy Kawasaki in 1998. "It feels a little smaller when you' re on it and it seems to turn a little better," he said . "I can definitely feel it's light er. The power is a little d ifferent; it doesn't seem like it has as mu ch torque. You kind of have to rev it a lot more. ,Willow went really good, and I was feeling pretty good on the few laps we rode."

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