The tire that Allen and the rest of
the Dunlop crew agree on will be
made for the March race. It appears
to offer more grip and is safe in both
on-track and lab testing.
Before any tire leaves the Dunlop
factory, it's put through a series of
indoor wheel tests. Based on experience, it seems to be a realistic simulation of what occurs on the banking.
"We have a sheet that we look at
before they ship the tires, Allen said.
They look at a performance sheet to see
what each tires did on the wheel test,".
Some of the spes are eliminated
when they're tested on Dunlop's 8foot-diameter steel wheel.
"You can put four tires in four different positions, camber it, caster it,
and load it," Allen explained. "It's a
pretty realistic simulation of what
goes on on the banking."
Of the front tires, one was used by
Kawasaki's Eric Bostrom at Laguna
Sec a this year "and it was pretty
obvious right away that it was better,"
Allen said. "Every team that tried it
after Laguna Seca, you can't get
them back on the old one."
Bostrom said the front had better
grip, "but the way our bike was set up it
didn't seem to want to tum in very nice.
It seemed kind of heavy. Maybe we need
a narrower rim. The tires are good."
Yoshimura Suzuki's Aaron Yates
agreed.
"I tried a front, some kind of big
front," he said. "I seemed to like it.
The only thing is Like in the chicane,
picking it up from the left to the right;
it was a little bit slower and getting a
little bit wide on the way out or in the
middle of the chicane. It felt a little
more planted and able to run it in. I
only rode around on one new rear
tire. It seemed to be better."
eN
TELLING TIMES
SUPERBIKE
1. Nicky Hayden (1 :48. 141)
2. Anthony Gobert (1:48.428)
3. Kurtis Roberts ( 1:49.152)
4. Eric Bostrom (1,50.422)
5. Pascal PIcotte (I :50,235)
6. Mat Mladin (1 :50.629)
7. Miguel DuHamel (1 :50.893)
8. Jamie Hacking (1:51.603)
9. Aaron Yates (1:51.319)
600cc: SaPERSPORT
1. Aaron Yates (1 :53.970)
2. Aaron Gobert (1:54.258)
3. Anthony Gobert (1 :54.506)
4. Miguel DuHamel ( 1:54.609)
5. Tommy Hayden (1:54.196)
6. Damon Buckmaster (1:54.933)
1. Roger Lee Hayden (1 :55.118)
8. Mike Hale (1 :55.260)
9. Alex Gobert (1:56.518)
10. Jake Zemke (1:57.180)
cue. e
n
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_
os
•
JANUARY 9. 2002
35
