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Testing At Laguna Seea ever turned on a race tire. The lap was 1 :25.550, well under the 1:26.1 00 that Yoshimura Suzuki's Mat f'\ladin-using a qualifying tireturned to take the pole for the 2001 running of the race. That Gobert did it after crashing his 'A' bike, then switching to his back-up, and on a track cooling in the low 50s, made it that much more impressive. "He set standards pretty hi,gh for this test," said Tom Halverson, a senior Yamaha employee wh took over as Gobert's crew chief this year. Gobert had set the mark both of the first two days, ending the second day fastest superbike and 600. Wednesday, the team was e perimenting with rear-rim widths w en he was caught out. Gobert came i to try a 6.25-inch rear-rim. The tire, a soft Dunlop 555, was swapped fror the narrower rim to the wide one. In the amount of time it took to change the tire it cooled slightly. So w'l n he backshifted entering the up hi I lefthander turn five the first ti e, the rear stepped out, gripped then launched him. "He was a little bit sore at th 111 of the day," Halverson said. "He landed on the rear wheel and kind of on his STORY AND PHOTOS BY HENNY RAY ABRAMS MONTEREY, CA, JAN. 23 or the second year in a row, Yamaha re-organized its road race team. The changes in 2001 were a step in the right direction. For 2002, the process is complete. The slight alteration of team personnel changed the chemistry completely, transforming the team from a tense group, seemingly motivated more by fear than success, to a looser, more relaxed, but equally professional outfit. The changes evident at the December Daytona Dunlop tire test were magnified at Mazda Raceway at Laguna Seca. It helps when you have a rider like Anthony Gobert, and it helps even more when Gobert is committed to racing, as he appears to be this year. The 26-year-old Australian stayed in the U.S. through the winter holidays, forsaking a trip home to Australia to continue his training. The results were on display during the three-day test in frigid Monterey. Shrugging off the ill effects of a vicious highside, Gobert blistered the frozen 2.2-mile circuit with a time faster than any AMA Superbike has F 16 FEBRUARY 6,2002' CUD • e n _ _ os side. It ripped his leathers wide open. He kind of came down on his wrist. I don't think he re-damaged anything." Gobert sat out for an hour and a Ila the set the new mark on his back-up ike. The time stood up, though A erican Honda's Nicky Hayden made a late run, coming within a 10th of a second at 1:25.655. "At Da tona, somehow, we just sort of stumbled on to something which was really good at Daytona and the lap times were coming easy at Daytona," Gobert said. "And then we came here and the bike felt great straight away and the lap times came easy. And we tried a different set-up and went nearly as quick yesterday on that set-up, but was having to work way harder to get the times. And toda we tried a different set-up again and pretty much the same thing. I only did three laps on it pretty mLlch came in and said I want to ride the other bike. The set-up we have righ,t now is really good on the tires. That's why I'm doing the good times witJ;! so many laps on the tires. It's just a good package." It also helps that Mazda Raceway is one of 90bert's favorite tracks. "I really love Laguna Seca," Gobert said. "With me loving Laguna Sec a and the handling characteristics of the Yamaha, it makes for a good package all around. "Phillip Island just scrapes by as number e because it's in Australia. his track runs a real close second. It just reminds me of home," Gobert said. Both being near an ocean, the weather is unpredictable. A damp track and a late-afternoon shower limited the riders to less than five hours track time on Monday. On Tuesday, there was ice on the track when the riders arrived and they didn't get going until after 11 a.m. It affected some riders more than others, but no one enjoyed it. "By the time I went out to try to go quicker, it had even cooled down more and the track - I was starting to lose a lot of confidence in the front, and the rear was starting to come around a little bit unpredictable and it was pretty much a little bit too risky to get too much more out of it," Gobert said. Hayden couldn't top Gobert, but he was able to lap a second and a half faster than he ever had. "Right toward the end of the day, we made some progress with the bike, the front end," Hayden said. "Merlyn [Plumlee] and the Showa guy kind of put their heads together and got it going a little bit better and got down in the 25s and did a couple of 25.6s and a few high 25s. Anthony [Gobert] went a little bit quicker than me. I was pushing, trying to get it. I wanted to go a little bit faster than him." Hayden did the time on the 2001 RC-51. The 2002 was handled more equally this time than at Daytona, with Hayden riding it on Monday, Kurtis Roberts on Tuesday, and Miguel DuHamel on Wednesday. Interestingly, all did their best times on the 2001 model. That's exactly how many times Nlc:kr Hayden was stl'anded on the rac:eb ac:k by ReSts that gave up on him: Twic:e. Here he gets a ride bac:k from KurUs Rober1s. Hayden, however, II ended up with the sec:ond qulc:kest lap of the test.