Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

Part I: Dunlop Daytona Tire Test [Hayden] liked it. That's obviously "They really improved. The thjng this new one. Eric [Bostrom] used ingham, England. Bostrom used it for something you're not going to make hooks up really good," DuHamel said. one of the new ones to do his time. his best lap. a whole lot of." Good enough for Kawasaki's Eric There seemed to be general agree- Unlike the Superbike tires, the Bostrom to turn the fastest-ever ment that it hung on longer than the DOTs are single compounds, and tires, plus a back up, in each com- 600cc Supersport lap around the last one." have been for the past few years. pound for the 15 factory riders, even Speedway, a 1:53.64, which he ran The fronts feature a new con- and we found we just didn't need it," Allen said. "It's a major deal to get Dunlop has to produce three race though not all of them are going to go on Tuesday before parking the 600 to struction of the same two com- the same way. "That's one of the concentrate on the lX- 7. A rival pounds as last year with the con- problems of Daytona, there's a lot of team's scrap," Allen said. "If they all lean Bostrom's top speed at 168 mph, a one way, it still costs a fair amount to rate nearly 10 mph better than some in August. There i.s a soft and a hard from it. There's no performance dis- make and import." of the other 600s. Second fastest was there and most of the riders picked advantage to going with a single- Yamaha's the softer one. compound tire." If they aren't used at Daytona this year, "they sure won't be acceptable radar gun Tommy measured Hayden at 1:54.16. two years down the road," Allen said. three rears with one of the rears being of factory to produce dual-compound tires. We just decided to go away 750 tire," Allen said. What distinguished the softer front "The boys have done a good job on the 600," Bostrom said. "A year ago I had to work my ass off to keep made at the company's plant in New because we were developing a new said. "Pretty much everyone picked with the result. York and not at the factory in Birm- team and had basically a stock i Ie. Leader Last year was one of divergent fortunes for / - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - : - - - - - - - -......~ the American Honda Kurtis RIIIII1s team. On the one hand there was the rapid ascendance of Nicky Hayden, the talented teenager who nearly stole the AMA/Chevy Trucks U.S. Superbike crown from Mat Mladin. On the other hand, it was a mostly miserable year for Miguel DuHamel, the most prolific rider in the history of AMA Superbike and Supersport racing. What this year will bring wasn't made obvious by the Daytona test, but there are certainly changes to come. First among them is the team leader. After leading Honda for the past 15 years, Gary Mathers is stepping down at the end of February, handing control of the race division to offroad champion Chuck Miller. Mathers and Miller have been working together for nearly a year and, beginning with the Daytona 200, Miller will be in charge of all Honda race efforts, and the vast responsibilities that entails. "I'm really fortunate because we have a lot of talented riders and technicians." Miller said at Daytona. "Everything's in place." What makes the job a little easier is personnel. Mathers knows how to put a race team together and has all the right people in place for a seamless transition. Ray Plumb continues to head up the road race effort and has hired three new mechanics to help with a greater workload. There will also be a new data acquisition specialist who begins work after the first of the year. For the first time ever, American Honda will run three Superbikes for the season. supplying DuHamel, Hayden, and Erion Racing's Kurtis Roberts. In addition, Roberts will nIce one of the new CBR-600Fi's for Erion, while DuHamel will try to add to his record win total for American Honda. Nicky Hayden will only race a 600 at Daytona. It was one of the conditions he insisted on in order to sign the two-year deal with American Honda that runs through 2002. "There's a whole bunch of magic inside of Honda. With Miguel, Nicky, and Kurtis, we're sitting as well as anybody for the championship," Miller believes. Miller knows that the riders need to ride and has planned a much more aggressive test schedule than in the past. "There are 12 events all spread out. Young guys want to ride every weekend. We'll keep them on the bike more often. There's not a National until March," Miller said. Since the end of the season, the team has already tested five times. Roberts' rode the RC51 a few times last year, never with much success, and never in a race. This would be his first time riding the bike at Daytona - last year he rode an RC45 - and he had the most to leam, a new bike, a new crew, new dual-compound tires. A quick study, Roberts was the fastest of the Honda riders, lapping at 1:50.7 on the American Honda bike. Though he'll be riding under Erion Racing colors in both the Superbike and 600cc Supersport classes, the Superbike will run out of the American Honda pits. "We made a little bit of progress, but there was not enough time," Roberts said. "When we come back here, I'm confident I know what we have to change on the bike." Roberts said the bike was "doing things I don't like it to do. I did a 50.7 on a race tire. I'm not that far off. Farther than Mat [Mladin] is." As for the dual·compound tires, Roberts was philosophical. "The tires are what they are. You've got to get the bike to work with the tires." He was equally philosophical about the outcome of the test. "Nicky [Haydenjleft here last year doing a 1:51.9 and he fell off. He came back in March and damn near won the thing." Roberts was farther off on the 600, lapping his best at 1:54.8 while towing new Erion teammate Roger Lee Hayden. The new fuel-injected 600 is quite a bit different, Roberts said, "" U "" I e n up with everybody ~~~:,!!~!i~:ii~~ kinks out of it. was and the team .erlclD 10Dda 10, 2001 • out was that it was a "Buffalo" front, last year's race tire. Honda's Miguel DuHamel pleased JANUARY coming "We found a better one," Allen Supersport classes, with American 22 a preliminary Dunlop test at Daytona "We figure the harder will be the Dunlop brought two new fronts and There were new DOT tires for the struction "Dual compounds are complicated e _ os else working the "It's a street bike with the lights taken off." Roberts said of the machines which had only just arrived at American Honda. "The engines are dead stock," Honda's Ray Plumb said, adding that they'd fitted different suspension and an aftermarket exhaust system. "The tuneable fuel-injection, we had one day to make sure it was work ing right." "These guys can go and get them race ready." Roberts said. Nicky Hayden wasn't lapping with the confidence he'd shown in March when he missed out on winning the 200 by .011 of a second, and he didn't know why. "I didn't have a very good time," the championship runner-up said. "J'm a little disappointed, especially on the superbike," where he was about eighth fastest. "We've got a lot of work to do for March. Everybody stepped up." Hayden was spectacular in tum one, pitching the RC51 sideways, dirt track style, but the rest of the infield was problematic. "There are some areas I'm pretty weak in," he said. "This place is tough. It's a weird track. Everything we learned from the beginning of the year made the bike worse." In order to concentrate on wresting the Superbike title from Mladin, Daytona will be Hayden's lone 600cc Supersport race. Like Roberts, Hayden was confident the bikes would be ready come race time. "The fuel-injection seemed smooth," Hayden said. Hayden tested a few tires and felt the new DOT's were easier to get on with than the dualcompound Superbike tires. Despite the fact that DuHamel probably has more laps around Daytona than any other rider, he said he had to learn the best lines for the new 600, which is why he crashed late in the test. The tip-over came when he hit the white painted line on the inside of the second horseshoe while trying to figure out the comer. The lap before he'd done the same thing, but saved it. "It's a new bike and a new design and the other one moved around," DuHamel said. "This one is tighter, more precise. We're working a lot on the 600. There are a lot of things to test on it. We want to make sure we get the most out of the bike. Development is in the beginning stage. The top speed is good on it." DuHamel said that getting off the comers was still a problem. "Obviously, we don't want to get too far behind everyone else." DuHamel spent more time on the 600 than the Superbike. only turning in 14 laps over the first two days of the test before turning his efforts more to the big bike. The team was testing a different rear suspension link and shock that he felt was, "pointing in the right way. We're not that far off from decent times." He did, howev· er, end the test about two seconds behind Mladin, who was able to concentrate solely on the Superbike. "Traction is a big problem," DuHamel said. "Obviously, Mat's got his stuff going good. With the powerband the way it is, this thing spins up easy." What may have slowed DuHamel slightly was the risk of injury. Less than a week after the test he had the rod removed from his right leg, the one that was badly Nicky Hayden and Merlyn Plumlee shattered at Loudon in 1998 and subsequently re-injured. DuHamel was operated on by Dr. Arthur Ting on December 18 and is expected to be out for five weeks recuperating. The next time he's meant to ride is at a January 22-25 test at Laguna Seca, but that will be mostly a photo shoot.

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