Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/128085
amo u nt of blistering, something Allen was at a loss to explain. "Yesterday we had more than 20 laps on man y tires," Allen said of the same basic tire tha t was used in the race las t year and the same tire tested in August. "To day we had blisters, several tires overheated. Everybody agreed there was less gri p, tires were spinning, so they were overheating . The only th ing that changed was the track tem perature." New for the Su persport crowd was the 0207 GP Star, the lat est u pda te of the DOT tire with a different trea d compound and p rofile. This yea r Du nlop is going ba ck to a sing le compound tire for supersport racing. "O u r fee li ng when we lost the 750 race th is yea r i s that we played it too conservative," Allen said. "It was pre tty clear that Josh Hayes [w ho was us ing Micheli nsl h a d m ore grip than T om Kipp did. We needed to look at a new line of thinking." The DOT tires will be basic sta ndard tires, but will be given extra Daytona scrutiny. "They' re mo re closely watched in the factory," Allen sai d . Du nlop wasn't the only team at Daytona with so met hi ng n e w o n board . Every team, except Harley-Davidson, had changes in either pe rso n ne l or equ ip me n t, o r b oth , li k e American Honda , which brought the eagerly an ticipated RC-51 and the precociou s Nic ky Hayden, as well as the nearly on- for m Migu el DuHamel. eN Aaron Yates shows his back as he gets down to speed on the Yoshimura Suzuki. Yates is coming off a miserable year with Kawasaki. l2uoorts un the muve ri on Ho nda con tinues to be the Honda satellite team, grooming riders to move up to the big team. Nicky Hayden ma de the move for 2000, a nd Kurtis Roberts looks like he' ll be next. The Form ula Xtreme Ch am pion is back to defend his title, as well as go after the 600cc Supersport title. In add ition, he'll ge t abo u t five rid es on the new RC-51 Su perbike, which he's looking forw ard to - even more so after an imp ress ive first ou ting on the RC-45, w hich is being retired. Rob erts was second fastes t to V&H Du cati' s Troy Bayliss on the second day after his first ride on a Superbike at Dayton a, and his first time on a Superbike on Dunlop tir es. Th e Superbike is differen t from the CBR-900RR on which he won the title, which he qu ickly discovered. "At other race tracks, I can already just tell by rid ing this thing that it' s a lot more stable than the 900 - not easier to rid e, but in so me ways it's easier, bu t you have to go fas ter on these tha n you do on the 900," Rober ts sa id. "It's a littl e more rid erfrien dl y, less torque. So they pu ll instead of just make raw power. I like it. "It's a rea l nice powerband ," h e co nt in ued. "You know you' re going a lot faster, bu t it doesn' t just jum p. It just revs so good, everything see ms to wo rk on it for me right now ." Roberts sa id he was rid ing the RC-45 because Ho n d a wan ted h im to get u s ed to Superb ike speeds . He said he thou ght he'd do five Superbik e races and tha t some of those races were at tracks that host doublehead ers. "Ho pe fu lly, we' ll get th e right five , and with th ose five tracks I w ant to rac e at , those are the double ones," he sai d. "It probably depends on how we're going at the time, you know." Josh Ha yes, lat e of the EMGO Valvoline Suzuki team, will join Roberts on the Erion Honda tea m . Hayes won th e 750cc Su pers po rt ra ce a t Dayton a in March and ran in th e lead group, and even led th e 600cc Su pers por t race on Suzu kis w it h Michelin tires . He'd been w ith Su zuki for four years, so this was so methi ng of an adjustment for him. "The 600s, they're quite a b it different," he said. "Basically, just the shape of the bike and the Ho nda seems to pick up revs qu ite a bit fas ter, stuff like that. Obviously, I'm pretty excited and pretty su rprised the lap times were as fast they were yesterday being the first day out, the first day on the bike and stuff. Getting a 56 yo ur first time out on the bike, the first session, I was pretty happy about that. I'm not riding much differ- • ent at all. If I am, I don't even notice it. One bik e does things a little better than th e ot her. I'm just tr y in g to capita lize a nd get the b e st of both worl d s. The Suzuki seemed to be a littl e bi t better th ro ugh some of the faste r turns maybe, but th e mor e we p lay with the se tu p, th e mor e the bikes ge t more and mo re comfortable. It' s ge tting easier to go fas t. I' ve been riding the Suzuki for basicall y fou r yea rs - I spent three lon g yea rs on the 600. So we had it pretty good and so rted ou t ~ and this thi ng's damn good w hen I ge t on it. I' m rig ht on top of my Suzuki times, on the Ho nda real fas t. And now we're jus t getting all th e litt le n it-p icky th ings to ma ke me comfo rta ble on it a nd it' s co mi ng arou nd pretty good. I' m pretty happy on it." Ha yes sa id that he thought the Honda advantage w ould sho w at mor e rid er -intensive tracks such as Sears Point and Mid-Ohio, "I th ink Laguna is goi ng to be a really good Hond a track, w here the Suzuki wa s really stru ggling, or maybe it was jus t me ," he said . "Bu t I like blaming the bike anyway. Th e Honda d efinitely fini shes a turn b etter a n d it has a su bsta n ti a l amount of pow er to get off the turn. It gets off the tum better." As for the rubber, he sai d, "Th ese Stars seem to be really good, th e fron ts es pecia lly, wh ich is where 1thou ght I had an ad vantage last year ." (Right) Kurtis Roberts had the opportunity to ride a factory Honda RC45 at Daytona - and he was impressive. (Below) Josh Hayes rode a Honda CBR600for the first lime. Hayes comes to the team after a successful season of racing last year with Suzuki. - 0> 0> 0> ~ .n ~ Q; .0 E CI) u CI) C 17