Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

Alone among the Big Four, Kawasaki has opted for the 2mm overbore route in its pursuit of the AMA/Chevy Trucks U.S. Superbike Championship. Honda chose to retain the championship-winning RC-51 V-twin, Yamaha dropped out of the Superbike class for the 2003 season, and Yoshimura Suzuki has gone for the restricted 1000cc option. The bigbore Kawasaki ZX-7R bike broke cover Tuesday, the first day of the three-day test at Mazda Raceway at Laguna Seca, alongside a standard-sized Kawasaki like the one Eric Bostrom rode to second in last year's championship. The motor was assembled and run for the first time on Monday, just before the test. Early retums were positive, though the bike is very much a work in progress. Bostrom set the fastest time of the test, a 1:26.215, though that was on the 750. His best time on the big bike was 1:26.488. The current incamation of the Kawasaki displaces more than 770ccs, Bostrom said, though that doesn't take full advantage of the 2mm overbore. The engine could run as big as 800ccs. For now, the added 20mms make more of an impression than Bostrom anticipated. "I think they've got some issues trying to get the thing big anyway: he said. Kawasaki team manager Mike Preston said the engine development team, headed by Theo Lockwood, who previously worked with Kawasaki's World Superbike effort, was working toward the bigger displacement, testing the standard against the big bore and analyZing the data before mOVing forward. "Th.e motor was designed as a 750: Preston said. "When you start pumping it up, there can be issues. It's real important that those issues don't become catastrophic and pitch Eric off." "The bike that we've been riding all weekend, we had an engine problem right when that fog started rolling in," he said. "So we switched everything over to the other bike and we went out, and something happened to that one, too, and that one was brand new. Both bikes were brand new when we got here, but something's not quite there." Overall, Pegram was pleased. "They were brand-new bikes, and we were trying to find a setup and test tires, and you don't want to change something and change tires, too, and wonder if it was the tire that made the bike better or whatever. We had about three long days' worth of work to do, and two days I was sick, and today we had problem, so we got about half a day's worth of work done in three days." Not so for American Honda's Ben Bostrom. The former Ducati World Superbike rider was looking forward to being on a proper racetrack after abortive tests at Daytona and Fontana. But he said he woke up on the wrong side of the bed on Tuesday and never came out of his funk. He'd end up with the slowest time of the Superbike set. "It's totally strange," Ben said. "When I took my first two laps around this place on Tuesday I said, 'I shouldn't even be riding here.' But Jamie Hacking and his new fuelinjected Yamaha R6 stole the show in the Supersport category at Laguna Seca. Hacking set a new Supersport lap record with a time of 1:28.757. The Yamahas of Damon Buckmaster and Aaron Gobert filled out the top three slots at the test. Ben also said he wasn't able to properly evaluate a number of test items because he wasn't going fast enough: "A couple of times I started to push, and I ran off the track wide and I'm like 'God, what the hell am I doing? Am I not leaning the bike over far enough?' I couldn't figure out what I was doing wrong." When he initially rode the Honda RC-51, he couldn't believe how different it was from the Ducatis he's raced for the past four years. He said there was still a little bit of Ducati in him. "The bike's good; the rider's riding really bad," he said. "It's kind of frustrating. This is our first good track, first good test." SUPERSPORT Yamaha ruled the Supersport roost, with the new R6 landing in the top three spots, Jamie Hacking the fastest of the fast with a new Supersport lap record. The South Carolinian arrived in Monterey fresh off a vacation in Aruba to celebrate his first wedding anniversary, and he appeared relaxed and confident. With this was race weekend, I'd push really hard, because you need to overcome, but there's no reason to wad the bike up or take a chance of hurting your- two hours left on the first day of the test, the team found a front-end setting that transformed the bike. "We set out to make the thing real comfortable in the front for me. We hit it," Hacking said after clocking a 1:28.757, just under the 1:28.904 Kawasaki's Eric Bostrom turned in 2001. "I'm really happy with it. It feels like it's got a front wheel on it now." American Honda's Miguel DuHamel was watching when Hacking turned his best lap. "It's funny because I saw his lap when he did it, and when he came off turn 11, I said to [crew self. So I just kind of circulated out there. We don't get enough time to ride on the bikes, so it's not fun when you're riding bad." chief] AI [Ludington], 'That's going to be fast.' He really looked good." From the side of the track, it looked like the Yamahas were com- we needed to because we had all our brake stuff to get sorted for next year and a couple of other things for next year. And we got our brakes picked for Daytona, so that's good, too." But Ben wasn't going to push for a faster time. "When you're riding bad, don't bother, because I could come out here next week and do two seconds a lap qUicker, so it's kind of weird. If .. The biggest issue is time: "The big thing for us is that it's late in the year: Preston said. "As soon as we found out the rules [from the AMA], we started ordering parts. It takes time to get the proper pistons. Some of the parts are Kawasaki parts, some are from vendors. some we make ourselves." Preston said the team would likely not run the larger motor at Daytona because there's too much uncertainty. The big bike will probably debut in race form at Fontana, though that won't be the final configuration. "We have some more motors to try, more configurations to try: Preston said. "We have to find the right combination to make the bike happy: the valves, the carbs. We're working with a different exhaust system." As much as the team tests on the dyno, it's not a replacement for track time. Kawasaki wiJJ test at Fontana and again at Laguna Seca before Daytona, with the possibility of a third test. "We can test on the dyno, but sometimes the dyno doesn't say the same as Eric's seat time/' Preston said. To this point, there hasn't been a major problem. "We can't have any failures: Preston said, "because you can't win championships if you have failures. We've been leaning so hard on the 750 to keep up with the 1000s, but now we have some relief. Now we'll be able to go bigger. "We're happy with the little amount of change." Bostrom said, adding, "then again, it's a pretty small change in the motor. It definitely seems to make a difference. I'm pleasantly surprised with the difference. I'd like it to be a little quicker on top." Bostrom said he noticed the difference off the fast comers. "Off the slow corners I didn't notice it so much, maybe because you're straight up and down. It still feels a bit soft. Coming off the faster comers like [tums] four and five, where you're already going probably over 100, that's where you feel the old bike wouldn't pull, and this thing will. We've still got to make it bigger yet, if they can. Hopefully it'll get quicker." Not surprisingly, the added grunt caused the Kawasaki to handle differently. Now the bike wants to lift the front end and run wide on the exits, problems Bostrom will gladly work through in exchange for the power. On the final day of the test, Bostrom wasn't riding very well, he admitted. And there were still handling issues. "The main thing we're fighting is getting the bike to handle the corner without having the rear slide around: he said. "For some reason, with the bigger motor we seem to have a little harshness entering the corners and less rear grip. When we get that sorted out, we should be in pretty good shape. There's a few little things we have to sort out with it, but overall we're pretty happy with it right out of the box. It's going pretty good." The test was the first for Bostrom and his new crew chief, former Honda mechanic Dan Fahie. Fahie took over from Matt Worbes who returned to Rob Muzzy's shop in Bend, Oregon, after the December Dunlop Daytona tire test. Fahie and Bostrom worked together previously at Honda. "It's always an adjustment, but it's been the easiest adjustment I've ever had," Bostrom said. "Maybe it's because we've worked together before or it's just that we've been friends for five years." ing off the corners better than the new Hondas or Kawasakis. "I was looking at some of the tires they were taking off some of their bikes," Hacking said. "It might seem like I'm coming off there a lot better because I'm picking up the throttle a lot harder." The team found the setting on Tuesday afternoon and didn't significantly improve. "They asked me what I wanted to change if I changed anything on the front end right now, and I said 'Nothing,''' Hacking said. "I'm pretty happy with it right now. At this track ... and this track is usually somewhere where you'll pick out a front-end problem, just because of the downhills and the flat surfaces. It's just a track that's always pulled problems out of the front ends. Believe it or not, ever since I've been cue I ... on this bike, I haven't had one problem out of the rear end at all. Grip's been awesome. It hasn't done anything silly. From then on we just tried to get the attitude of the bike pretty neutral." Fuel injection is one of the areas the team struggled with at the Daytona test. With no data to fall back on, it was mostly hit and miss. When they got back to their home base in California, they were able to make a quantum leap. "We were able to identify things at Daytona and work on them the last few weeks," Yamaha's Tom Halverson said. "We came a long way with it. Track to track, it won't be so bad once we factor in the weather and other conditions. "Damon [Buckmaster] and Jamie [Hacking] are happy with the bike. I n e _ S • FEBRUARY 5, 2003 29

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