Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

Road Atlanta Test Hot To that end, the team was going in a direction they'd never gone before, and it was working. Tommy Hayden _Itted on getting his Yamaha better In certain sections of the track that hampered his performance laat year. "Last year the bike was impossible to ride,' Bostrom said. "We're trying We're trying to tie it all together.' to make it easy to ride. We're getting Bostrom also said the team seems to have solved last year's inconsistency problems. there. We're getting comfortable. It feels like you can ride the thing pretty hard and it won't bite you. We're trying to get a bike that has a lot of feel. It's a Catch-22. We've got the front Tommy Hayden remembered where the Yamaha team lost time where I like it in some ends of the in the race last year, and that's where his team was concentrating track, other parts are not so great. its work. Picotte Rests, Smith Flies Harley-Davidson was at half-strength for the Road Atlanta test as Pascal Picotte opted to stay home in Quebec to continue his recovery from injuries suffered in a snowmobile accident about two weeks earlier. "He has a banged-up elbow, a sore neck. His leg is a little sore and his ribs are sore," said John Baker, Harley-Davidson's director of racing. "There are no broken bones, fortunately. He's just resting right now." Baker added, "We really wanted to get him ¥>me time on the bike for Sears Point. He'll be ready to go." The accident came while Picotte was trail riding with a friend not far from his home. Picotte came up on a ditch where there typically wasn't one. "He was going IDa fast and couldn't avoid it,• Baker said. "Luckily, he had a friend with him.' That left the bulk of the testing to Georgian Mike Smith, who was sorting through new suspension and brake parts, while continuing to get familiar with the VR I 000 and his technical team. The team was testing the latest version of the Showa suspension, which they didn't have at Daytona. They were also sorting through brake systems from AP and Brembo. "We're trying to get the handling working better," Smith said. "Putting the power we have to the ground. That's what we're trying to figure out. It's not just better stuff, it's getting the combinations suited together." Smith also tried various brake combinations, six-piston and four-piston calipers, and various brakes shoes, and rotors in differing diameters. Smith and Baker both said they had no new engine parts to test. "It seems to have pretty good speed," Smith said. "It's just getting it put down and getting it tumed. Getting the combination right with the crew chief and a new rider." Baker said the 12-man VR development team had recently moved into their new facility in East Troy, Wisconsin, about six miles from Gemini Technology Systems. The team tested prior to Daytona at Carolina Motorsports Park and will test again next week at Virginia Intemational Raceway, but only with test rider Shawn Higbee. 16 APRIL 25, 2001 • cue. e n e _ s Here~ Eh The last time Steve Crevier was at Road Atlanta, he was a member of the Yoshimura Suzuki team. When he returned this time. he was still as a factory rider, but now for Honda Canada, and it's not quite the same. Yes, he has two Honda RC51s and a CBR600 F4i, but the RC51s don't measure up to those ridden by fellow Canadian Miguel DuHamel, of American Honda. and the 600 is slower too, but that's by design. Crevier and the rest of the Honda Canada team, Michael Taylor and Jeff Williams, both of whom rode for the Kawasaki team last year, came to Road Atlanta for a rare chance to test prior to the May 20 start of the seven-race Parts Canada Canadian Superbike Championship. "There's not a single track in Canada that's rideable now," Crevier said on a warm and muggy day at Road Atlanta. "For the Honda Canada team, this is a pretty good opportuni· ty. Our season is a short season due to the weather. I last rode a street bike in September." The last time Crevier rode, he clinched the Canadian Superbike Championship for the Honda Canada team. He nearly won the 600cc Supersport class as well, getting passed in the final comer of the final lap by Owen Weichel (the 600cc Supersport class is restricted to II 0 horsepower in Canada). Last year there were two Honda Canada teams. This year it's been consolidated to one, with Crevier riding the Open Superbike class - which allows big bore machinery like Yamaha R-l s - and 600cc Supersport. Jeff Williams will ride the 600cc Supersport class, and race a Honda CBR929RR in both the Open Superb ike and Unlimited Supersport. Crevier's brother-in-law. Michael Taylor, the third member of the team, will ride Open Supersport and Open Superbike. Testing is a luxury that most Canadian teams can scarcely alford. The Honda Canada team tested twice last year in the United States, but both tests were fouled by bad weather, and the team is still paying for it. Because of the strength of the U.S. dollar over the Canadian dollar, Crevier said it was diffi· cult to justify testing. "Our race budget is small and if you test four times before the season, it costs the same as racing the seven-race series," he said. In addition to backing from Honda Canada, the team is sponsored by Dunlop, Joe Rocket leathers and HJC helmets. Arriving in the mugginess of Atlanta, and having not ridden for so long, made for a rough retum to riding for Crevier. "I'm not doing very good," Crevier said. "I'm not going to put on new tires and do blistering laps. I'm not setting the world on fire. I'm working on the chassis to be ready for the first race. I'm quite rusty. I need a race." THE HIGH COST OF TESTING in order to make it economically feasible to test, the teams who gathered at Road Atlanta split the track-rental cost. The total cost for the three-day rental was $47,000, and that was a minor cost. More than one team manager agreed that the cost of a test like this would nonmally add up to around $50,000, depending on how many riders take part and whether any of them crash. Racing is expensive. No one has ever denied that. But testing is just as expensive, if not more so. The teams act collegially by inviting each other to their tests largely for two reasons, to share the cost and to share the tracks. An ancillary benefit is that a green track comes in sooner with more bikes on it. Finding available track dates is a year-round alfair, according to Yoshimura Suzuki's Rich Doan. "I started looking in August or September to get these dates," Doan said. "There are so many schools. car clubs, motorcycle schools. When I leave here, I'll ask them about dates for next year." The three days the teams shared here were hard to come by. The cost was higher than it might have been because the teams had to buy the dates from the Panoz Racing School, which operates at Road Atlanta. "Sears Point is next to impossible to get,' Doan said. Laguna Seca is also difficult because they break down their testing days by noise limits. They have a set number of SO-decibel days, and even fewer 105 db days. The louder days are. naturally, more expensive. The prices are like airline tickets, subject to change and conditions. Some tracks include corner workers, gate workers, medical services, and hay bales in the cost of the rental. Others don't. Some tracks insist on seeing the insurance documents the teams carry. Daytona International Speedway is a bargain, only $3500 a day. Sears Point and Laguna Seca are both around $8500. Road America is about $15,000 a day, the price driven up by the scarcity of good-weather days. Homestead, south of Miami, is one of the more expensive. One team manager said the last time he inquired it was $10,000 for the first team, and $5000 for each additional team. Weather has the opposite affect there. With sunshine year-round, the track is booked almost non-stop. "The only consistency is that it's a bitch getting dates," Doan said. Suzuki. Kawasaki, and possibly a few other teams have a test planned for Road America the Tuesday after the Road Atlanta doubleheader. The trucks will have to make the 20hour drive almost straight through, then the mechanics will have scarce time to freshen up the bikes and change gearboxes. There's also a Suzuki test planned at Virginia International Raceway about a week and a half after Brainerd. "We've really stepped it up and it's really paid off the last few years," Yoshimura Suzuki team manager Don Sakakura said. "Any available time, we keep the guys on the track. Every year we try to step up. Especially with a new machine [the Suzuki GSX-R7501 this year."

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