Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

"The way we test now we can't offer race tires, a qualifier, and two other variations to the bulk of the people. variants, potentially raceable tires. I've said in the past and again this Here, the jury wasn't as adamant as it year, this test isn't about tires, but was in August. about new riders and new motorcy- "We have two players for the front, cles. We can get a lot done if we con- but one didn't jump out in front," centrate on two or three tires." Allen said. "With the guys that I Because the Honda team of Nicky worked with, they weren't leaning to Hayden and Miguel DuHamel strug- the new one. The comment we got gled with grip this year on their was there was not much difference. RCS1 s, they couldn't rely on them for Something may crop up as far as much input. temperature resistance." "Doug [Chandler] and Eric The harder of the rears will proba- [Bostrom] and Mat [MJadin] were the bly be the choice of the faster guys, principal guys to test tires this time." with the softer going to the riders who Chandler even tested what could liked it and the privateers. Those will conceivably become a 2002 race tire, be the two that are produced in bulk a single-compound tire. for the March race. "He did four laps on the two tires. "One of them, One was a wash and the other he had positive feedback on," Allen said. Ben Bostrom was quick, riding the Superbike to a time of 1 :50.3 and the 600 to a lap of 1:53.64. CompeddoD lccessories Ducad Ready To Rtnnble In the span of just one year, the CompetitionAccessories.com team has become a force in the Superbike field and they arrived at Daytona looking the part. Gone is the oversized box truck, replaced with a 53-foot semi-trailer for riders Larry Pegram, last year's lone rider, and his new teammate John Kocinski, late of the defunct Vance & Hines Ducati team. Inside the truck was a quartet of new Ducati 996s, direct from Ducati Corse in Italy, which also sent a trio of mechanics. Team owner Tim Pritchard said it was the support of both Ducati Corse, in Italy, and Ducati North America that made it happen. "We have more on the plate, but there are a Jot of obstacles," Pritchard said. "A lot of things have changed, going from the truck we had to the truck we have. All new equipment, new tools, new bikes, new parts." The team continues to be sponsored by the same group that backed it last year, but Pritchard said there could be a titie sponsor, all in an effort to raise the visibility of the core business, Competition Accessories. "Someone could possibly take more of a titie-sponsor role." Motorcycle Stuff, a large distributor, had two representatives at the test looking over the operation. "Certainly the exposure we got through racing we were to capitalize on in many of our ads and the catalogs," Pritchard said. "We'll continue that promotion. It's an arm of advertising, It's good for the customer base. We've gotten tremendous feedback from our customers." Last year the team was committed to the AMA/Chevy Trucks U.S. Superbike Championship and the Wrenchead.com National Road Race Series. Pegram also rode a few dirt tracks. "It was a big commitment," Pritchard said. "We really bit off more than we could chew. The first commitment, the priority this year, is AMA Superblke." If Pegram wanted to dirt track, he'd have to put something together on his own, Pritchard said. At the final AMA race at Willow Springs, Pritchard felt confident he'd be signing Anthony Gobert, only to lose him to Yamaha over money, he said. "I think it just became a dollars-and-cents decision with Anthony. He had two options; us and Yamaha. He decided to jump on board with Yamaha. Not that John [Kocinski) was a second choice. We had three or four people we were talking to at the same time, and John talked to Ducati Corse. We're thrilled to death with John. John proved yesterday [Monday) that he was the fastest guy here." Last year, Kocinski and the Vance & Hines crew never really gelled, to put it mildly. For Kocinski, it was a matter of feeling he didn't have the right people supporting him - the Vance & Hines team would dispute that - something he says is crucially important. This Lany Pegram will be back at Competition Accessories. for instance, [which had better grip] made the bike pogo on the banking. Some Out of this test, Allen said there said it was okay. Doug [Chandler] were two rears he considered to be hated it, Scott [Russell] and Nicky year there can be no excuses. After repeated entreaties to his home in Japan, Kazuhiko "Matchi" Matsumoto signed on for the year. Matsumoto worked with Kocinski in his final three years overseas, first at Castrol Honda, where he won the World Superbike title, then in Sito Pons' 500cc GP team, and finally with Kanemoto Honda_ Kocinski has one more mechanic he'd like to hire. "The biggest thing for me is that I have to work directly with the factory," Kocinski said. "I know how to make a team. I know how to win. It's just a matter of if that can be prOVided. It's not easy beating the Japanese. There are a lot of good riders in this series. It takes a lot of effort and a lot of resources of win the championship." Last year, Kocinski was recruited after the season began and never got a chance to test the Vance & Hines bikes. Partly that was a budgetary concem. This team was to test at Road Atlanta the week after the Daytona test, though they might not have had enough parts to test. This year's machines arrived in Miami from Italy on Thursday night, three days before the Dunlop test. The team transported them to the AM! in Daytona where they made the machines race ready in two days. What they couldn't know is how they'd work out of the box and that's where the work is, according to Kocinski. "There's a lot of work I need to do with the factory on the machine to improve it," Kocinski said after tuming in the fastest lap of the test on a qualifying tire. "The Ducati's a good motorcycle, but it's stayed the same all the time. Everyone is making improvements." The current machine has reliability and top speed, Kocinski believes, it just needs work on the chassis. "There's a lot of work to do. I'm quite concerned that work's going to be done." New to Kocinski, in addition to the team and the machinery and the rock-hard tires, was the track. Though he's won 250cc Grand Prix races at Daytona, this was his first time to test the banking on a Superbike. What Kocinski wanted to emphasize, was how much better he felt the tires were. Last year he was openly critical of the Dunlops. At this test, his opinion had swung 180 degrees. "That's one of the things I can say about this weekend was the level of support," Kocinski said. "I never had that kind of level last season. I came here and did not have one bad tire. I know they can build good tires." Pegram found it harder to assess the tires because of the slickness of the track. The hard rains had turned the track green, meaning there was even less traction than normal. "I don't even look at the throttle in tum one," Pegram said. More than the tires, Pegram was getting used to the new machines and crew. Though he had long-time mechanic Skip Eaken in his garage, there were others he'd be working with who he needed to become familiar with. "The motor's a little different, the chassis is the same, the suspension is the same, but updated," Pegram said. "We know what to do." Pegram wasn't trying any of the new tires, preferring to use the ones he knew and use them hard. 'We've got to get the thing to work with the tires from laps five to 15. That's where the race is won, not the first five laps, but the last 12 laps." cue I e n e _ S • JANUARY 10, 2001 21

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