Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

Laguna 5eca Test also trying out a new chassis man. Hacking said that his GSX-R600 was down on acceleration on the straights of Laguna Seca. "Where you come out of the corner, it affects the whole straightaway. and also going up this big hills over here it seems to be struggling a little bit," he said. eN Superbike riders to do double duty, testing both their GSX-R750s and 600s. There was so much to test on both bikes that setting the fastest time was secondary to having good race bikes in Fontana. "We're suffering a little bit on the front end as far as feeling, grip of the front tire, and it's kind of holding me up a little bit going into turns and all," Yates said. "Hopefully, between all the different forks we got set up right now to try, hopefully I should find something that should give me what I'm looking for." Front-end feel is crucial at Fontana. The track is extremely abrasive and front-tire wear will be the number-one concern. "I was looking at some of those and Aaron [Yates] seemed to be having pretty bad trouble," Hacking said of his teammate during their Fontana test. "My front, it was wearing a lot, but it was kind of minimal. Of all of ours, mine was the least, probably because of my weight." Hacking spent his time at Laguna Sec a getting re-acquainted with his old crew chief, Tom Houseworth. The pair had worked together for three years at Yamaha before Hacking left for Yoshimura Suzuki. The team was (RIght) Anthony Gobert wheelies his R7. (Below) Jamie Hacking was reunited with crew chief Tom Houseworth at the test. (Below right) Kurtis Roberts was fast throughout the test, ending up Just behind Chandler. Doug Chandler STORY AND PHOTOS BY HENNY RAY ABRAMS oug Chandler came to the three-day test at ( ) Mazda Raceway at Laguna Seca with characteristic modesty. "I was coming in thinking if I'm within a second (' d be okay," he said about his first outing on the HMC Ducati. He hadn't ridden a proper race bike since the final AMA race at VIR last September and was up against the best Superbike riders in America who'd spent a week at Daytona working the bugs out of their gear. Now he'd have three days to measure how rusty he'd gotten. "I hadn't ridden for six months and I knew I had three days." At the end of his first day, Chandler was the fastest of the nine factory Superbike riders. That he was on the pace surprised him, but few others. Erion Honda's Kurtis Roberts, just a little off Chandler's pace, knew it was a good fit "when I heard he might be riding for them before the season. I knew Doug would go good because he's so smooth." "It's great to be right in the middle of things," Chandler said at the end of the day. By the time the test ended on Thursday afternoon, Chandler was not only the fastest of all the factory Superbike riders, he'd also lapped Laguna Sec a faster than he ever had, even on a qualifying tire. "Every time I went out I felt more comfortable on 12 APRIL 10, 2002' cue I .. n .. _ it and that's ultimately what I wanted to do is just get to where I wanted to be, move around on it and feel good about it," Chandler said. "You'd need a two-by-four to knock the smile off his face," Gary Medley, the recently installed HMC Ducati crew chief, said of his longtime charge Chandler. It wasn't all that long ago that Chandler wasn't smiling. His phone didn't ring after the 2001 season. Kawasaki, where he'd won three AMA Superbike crowns, more than any other Kawasaki rider, wasn't interested. Not that they bothered to tell him. They just ignored him, an act of thoughtlessness that made Chandler bitter. "I always thought I'd have a spot there at Kawasaki, being as we were there for so long," he said during a pit wall conversation before Wednesday's test session. "If not a ride position, some sort of position among the team. Nothing came up as a ride. We looked elsewhere and everyone seemed to be going on their second of a two-year contract deal, so everyone was locked in. No spots really opened. Kawasaki just never really came up front and offered us anything. I kind of understand where they were going with the team, all these young guys. But, ultimately, that's kind of what I wanted to be a part of as well. My days of riding are getting shorter. I still want to be involved in a functioning team and helping the new riders in the team." so What made it worse was that someone at Kawasaki had invited him to a team appreciation dinner for past champions, sending him a box of clothing and a schedule. "A lot of them didn't even know that was going on," he said. "It's kind of a weird deal. One side of them will do anything for you and then the other you couldn't get nothing out of them. The way things were going, I couldn't go down there, not having nothing from them for the following year." So he sat and waited and nothing happened. A couple of weeks before the Daytona 200, it finally hit him. "Up until probably the middle of February, I was still thinking that something could come together and I'd get on a plane and go back there. Then it got down to it: It's not going to happen. I'm not going." He tried to keep himself busy, but the fire was still there. He still wanted to ride. On the day of the 200, he'd said he was going to go riding, but he watched much of the race on television. "I'd much rather have been there participating than watching," he said. Little did he know that in little more than a week he'd be right back in the thick of it. Chandler had been talking to a few teams for 2001. HMC Ducati was one; Austin/Bleu Bayou Racing was the other. HMC Ducati owner Mitch

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