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the test - John Kocinski turned in a flier on a qualifying tire to take bragging rights - but he was by far the most consistent, lapping the 3.56-mile road course on race tires faster than he ever had before, even on a qualifier. And he did it lap after lap, stamping his authority on the track and demoralizing his competition. "Any time I'm on a 600, Mat's [Mladin] out there improving his times," Yamaha's Anthony Gobert said about the time he had to spend shaking down the R-6 during the rain-plagued test where track time was at a premium. Between Monday's rain and fog, and Tuesday's rain, the test was essentially shortened by more than a day, denying teams much needed time to set up their new bikes, and denying riders the time they needed to get used to the new gear. Over the course of the past few years this test has become more about new riders on new motorcycles and less about testing tires. Dunlop comes to Daytona in August for a preliminary test, this year inviting the Yoshimura Suzuki and American Honda squads to go through a much broader range of tire choices. Those were whittled down to the four, plus a qualifier, that were brought here. Mladin took part in the August test and returned for an extraordinary three-day Yoshimura test in October. John Kocinski turned the quickest "p 0' the test, a 1:49.58, on his Competition Accessories Ducat!. The homework had paid off and more than a few of his fellow riders noted how much time he'd put in. "Everybody is struggling with grip except Suzuki and they've been here three times," CompetitionAccessories.com's Larry Pegram said. The Yosh team, or at least Mladin's "Team Australia" within the team, has become the New York Yankees of the Superbike set. Mladin has won the AMA title the past two years and came close in 1998, victimized by breakdowns to a thirdplace finish. Like the Yankees, the Yosh team spends to win, but they spend wisely and get results. This year Mladin re-shuffled the team, bringing in Peter Doyle, an old friend and veteran crew chief who helped Scott Russell to his 1993 World Superbike title. Doyle is a more traditional crew chief than Amarr Bazzaz, the computer whiz who's done the job the past two years. "As a crew chief, he'll do a better job than Aman," Mladin says, meaning no disrespect. "Amarr's talent is in other areas." With Doyle onboard, Bazzaz has been freed up to work with all three Yosh riders and spent considerable time helping newest recruit Jamie Hacking get acclimated to the GSXRs. Bazzaz was also working with a real-time data acquisition system, a potentially very valuable tool, though only for testing. Such systems are banned from use in AMA competition. Mladin didn't try any qualifying tires; he didn't have to. His best time Dunlop tire technician Jim Allen discusses the situation with Nicky Hayden. on a race tire was a hand-timed 1:49.87, which was second best to Kocinski's 1:49.58, done on the qualifier. The more impressive times for Mladin were turned in during a stretch on the second day of the test when he turned in a slew of laps in the 1:50s, faster than the pace he'd run in winning last year's 200. "The quickest I ever went on the old bike was a 50.3 and that was in the race drafting by Nicky [Hayden]," Mladin said at the end of the threeday test. Mladin was worn out after turning in nearly 500 miles over the course' of the test. "That's enough," he said, and it was. This was the third outing on the newest and best (even in the early stages of development) incarnation of the fuel-injected GSX-R750. "I could drive up on everyone on the banking," Mladin said. "The bike's promising. " Mladin and Kawasaki's Doug Chandler and Eric Bostrom did the bulk of the tire testing. The best laps MIadin turned in were done on what's expected to the race tire for 2001, he said, though he also thought the 2000 race tire would work this year. "There are a couple of picks for the race," he said. Eric Bostrom said there was "certainly one tire I preferred over the rest and I think that's the majority pick." Bostrom said it was "decent enough to get into the high 50s for us. Doug [Chandler] was able to get down there even further." The TIDles The, Are A-CbaDIID 9 9 kJL~ (All times on race tires except where noted): 1. John Kocinski (Ducati), 1:49.58 - Qual ,er 2. Mal MIadin (Suzuki), 1:49.87 3. Doug Chandler ( awasaki), 1:50.03 - Qualifier 4. Kurtis Roberts (Honda). 1:50.7 5. Eric Bostrom (Kawasaki), 1:50.87 6. Anthony Gobert (Yamaha). 1:50.89 - Qualifier 7. Scott Russell (Ducati), 1:51 8. Nicky Hayden (Honda), 1:51.08 9. Jamie Hacking (Suzuki), 1:51.3 10. Steve Rapp (Ducati), 1:51.35 11. Miguel DuHamel (Honda). 1:51.86 iOO~c Sllljpe~ZJIICIrIt 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. cue I • n I!! _ '!!'!mmIllS: Eric Bostrom (Kawasaki), 1:53.64 Tommy Hayden (Yamaha), 1:54.16 Jamie Hacking (Suzuki). 1:54.4 Nicky Hayden (Honda), 1:54.76 Doug Chandler (Kawasaki). 1:55.5 Miguel DuHamel (Honda), 1:55.9 Anthony Gobert (Yamaha), 1:56.7 S • .JANUARY 10, 2001 19