Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

Team Test At Laguna Seca think they could race it right now: he added. Like Hacking, Buckmaster and most of the rest of the 600cc crowd turned their best laps ever at Laguna Seca. The time came through the normal process of trial and error. Buckmaster's crew tested exhaust pipes, fuel injection, ignition timing, forks and shocks. "You name it, we did it this week: Buckmaster said. "It just all came Gobert's been working to rehab his shoulder blade and get back his lung capacity. The first of the Hondas was ridden by DuHamel, who parked his 600 halfway through the second day. "I did a 29.4, and that's not too bad," DuHamel said of the 1:29.451, also a personal best. "I think as far as we're concerned with the 600, everything's looking pretty good. We've got a good bike to go and race." Erion Honda's Jake Zemke was a tick slower than DuHamel. Zemke was splitting his time between his Honda CBR-954RR Formula Xtreme machine and the new 600. "Today we finished off the day running all 29s and think we ran like 16 laps in the 29s right in a row," "I guess it comes off the corner so well because it handles so good," Gobert said. "You can carry more momentum, which then brings acceleration and top speed. It's just a bit of a package thing that's just all around really good. The thing the old bike used to have was a few handling problems, especially with this track being so flat and fast. And then now with this new bike, all that problem's gone. It's just so smooth. Always chatter and then now with this new Zemke said, his best a 1:29.515. "The bike is just really, really good. It doesn't do anything bad. They asked the first day I came in 'What do you think? Where's this an improvement over the last one?' I said, 'Everywhere.' It accelerates better; it turns better; it does everything configuration with the frame, new geometry and stuff, it's all gone." Gobert flew straight to the test from Australia, arriving on Sunday afternoon. Ever since he's been physically able, he's been working hard to recover from the devastating injuries FEBRUARY 5, 2003' cue he suffered at Daytona last year. "No one really understands. It's a constant battle with me legs to get stronger," he said. "I've sort of been burnt out the last months trying to catch up, but it's got to be done." In addition to his leg strength, together. It seems like we got a good package." Buckmaster said the throttle response was immediately apparent. "Opening the throttle is heaps better than it was at Daytona," Buckmaster said. "Just getting to dial it in right has taken a little bit of time." Aaron Gobert, like his teammates, also set a new personal best for Laguna Seca. Gobert thought he was done for the day when a light drizzle fell on Thursday afternoon. He was in his street clothes when he was called back to the bike. It was then that he turned his fastest lap. 30 Miguel DuHamel was the first of the Hondas on the Supersport time sheets, despite spending limited time on the new CBR600RR and concentrating on his Superbike. • better. You can brake harder; you can brake later. The whole bike, you can just do everything a little bit better or a lot better in some cases. It just makes for an easier ride that's faster. You can do faster lap times without even trying to push." n _ vv s ... Karning Ko went to buy a shirt, and it ended up costing him $100,000, and the tab's still running. Ko, a Chinese-American importer and distributor of automotive parts, was admiring a Competition Accessories team shirt that an English friend had bought for $50 at the 200 1 Ducati Revs America in Las Vegas. Ko went to buy the shirt but ended up buying Larry Pegram's Competition Accessories' Ducatis, along with engines and spares. That initial purchase led to helping sponsor Pegram in last year's Formula USA Dirt Track Series and, eventually, to Dream Team Ducati. The team made an impressive on-track debut at Mazda Raceway at Laguna Seca. Pegram, despite feeling so sick that he nearly stayed in his hotel room and could only ride four laps at a time, clocked the third-fastest time on the first day of the test. The feat wa.s more impressive considering Pegram spent half the day breaking in motors. "Today we'll get our bearings and see where we're at," Pegram said. "Tomorrow, Thursday, we'll go for it." By the end of the three-day test, Pegram had lapped at a best of 1:27.123, fifth fastest among the Superbike crowd, despite continuing health problems. "My problem was, I was sick, and we had about 15 different sets of tires to go through," Pegram said on Thursday afternoon. "All weekend long I was going through tires, and I wasn't giving them a good enough evaluation because I was sick, and today we got down to the end of the line, where you progress to the ones you think are the best. Today I was feeling better, and everything was going better, and then something went wrong with the bikes. I think we did 27.1, and Kurtis [Robertsl was quickest at 26.3. We were less than a second off, and I know we can go quicker." It was at this very same track that the team took shape. The team's co-owners, Ko and restaurateur Devoe Hill, came up with the name during the 2002 World Superbike week· end in Monterey. "Devoe [Hill] said, 'Let's do it together,' Ko said. "'If that's our dream, let's do it together.'" HjJI gets credit for the team name. The pair are avid enthusiasts and a study in contrast. HjJI is a dreadlocked African· American who co-owns Dublin's Irish Sports Bar, the largest sports bar in Los Angeles, along with a number of other restaurant properties including The Falls, an upscale French restaurant near Dublin's on Sunset Boulevard and two others. Two more are scheduled for opening in Las Vegas in May. Hill owns a number of motorcycles, all Italian, including a pair of MV Agustas, an ApriJia Mille R, an ApriHa RS-250, and a Ducati 998. Ko's business, China Wheel Manufacturing, has wheels made in China for the American SUV market. "One of the main reasons I got into this is there's a market in the motorcycle accessory market as a manufacturer," Ko said. "Mostly we're going to focus on the Japanese cruiser market and also on apparel. Half the clothing in American department stores is from China. We can do that." Ko isn't sure how many motorcycles he owns, about 12 or 14, he said, including Troy Bayliss' 2001 championship· winning Ducati 998, which was raced by Neil Hodgson in 2002 and is currently being restored, a Yamaha TZ-750, a 1998 Carl Fogarty Ducati, and another from that year that was ridden by either Troy Bayliss or Pier-Francesco Chili. The two met through Pro Italia, an Italian bike dealership in Glendale, California owned by Bill Nation. Once the decision to race was made, the pair sent a resume to Paolo Ciabatti, who runs the AMA and World Superbike programs at Ducati Corse in Bologna. Their effort was endorsed, and the team was sold a pair of Ducati 998 RS F03s, the same machines used by Ducati Austin, along with four spare engines and about $100,000 in spare parts. They arrived in the U.S.A. in December but were held up in customs in Los Angeles by government officials. "The EPA [Environmental Protection Agency] grabbed them and said they were street bikes," Pegram said. "We said, 'No, they're race bikes.' We had to get documents saying that they weren't going to be used on the street." They were released just before Christmas. That was the easy part. The team had to be built from the ground up. Pegram, who was a part owner in the Competition Accessories team, got the ball rolling. Elliot Cho was hired as the team manager and data acquisition specialist. Mike Velasco, who worked with Pegram at Hooters/Mountain Dew Suzuki, was brought in to build the motors. Both Velasco and Cho spent a week in Italy leaming the intricacies of the 998RS. Pegram's crew chief, Kazuhiko "Machi" Matsumoto, worked with Pegram in 2001 at Competition Accessories Ducati and before that with John Kocinski in his World Superbike and GP endeavors. The team will be one of the two Superbike squads to use Michelin tires. Four days before the Laguna Seca test, the team took delivery of the HMC Ducati trailer from Mitch Hansen, though they'll lease their own tractor. The trailer isn't all they bought from Hansen. Hansen's pit setup, possibly the most professional in the paddock, will be re·branded in the same red, white and blue Dream Team Ducati colors that the bike will fly. The trailer will remain largely the same Ducati red. unless they find sponsorship in the next month and a half before the Daytona 200. The team will based out of a brand new 55,OOO-square-foot workshop in Camarillo, Califomia. "We expect the first year to be a springboard," Ko said. "The second year, we should be able to get help. The only way to get sponsorship is to do well. We've got to go for broke." "We've gotten a lot of encouragement from within the industry," Hill said. Zemke said there was speed in the details. bit rough there; it's not quite following the way I want it to.' It doesn't "It doesn't show you a big drastic throw a big huge red flag up in your problem," he said. "Where you say, face saying, 'This has got to be fixed,' 'The thing's chattering off the race it's just fine-tuning stuff." track in turn four,' which is pretty The forecast on the Xtreme bike common here, you don't have that wasn't as rosy. "We didn't get to an any more. Instead it might be: 'I just optimum setting, J didn't think," he feel the front end moving a just a little said. "I've been around here quicker

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