Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/128227
arber Motorsports Park faster because mid-26 is our limit," he said. "We just keep running those, keep running, keep running them forever, but that's not good enough. We need to run 26 flat." On Thursday morning he was almost at 26 flat - he lapped at 1:26.018 - then dipped into the 25s after the track dried in the afternoon. "We did three 25.9s and hit the wall again," Bostrom said. "We need to find another half a second. The race pace is going to be in the 25s." Bostrom said the limiting factors were steering and grip. "We need to find both." There was also severe front tire wear. "It (the front tire) was good for about 12 laps, then it's shredded," Bostrom said. Unlike Mladin and Yates. Bostrom left his trail the same, working on the rear of the bike. "It didn't make any difference. We tore them up after 12 to 14 laps." Bostrom agreed with Kurtis Roberts' belief that time didn't come in chunks at Barber. "At the end of the day we worked all day to gain half a second. It's a fuJI day's work," Bostrom said. "Each half a second is harder to get off." Just as Mladin dominated the Superbike times, Yamahas dominated the Supersports, taking three of the four fastest times, and four of the top five. Championship leader Jamie Hacking was fastest at 1:28.450, followed by Damon Buckmaster (1 :28.535) and Jason DiSalvo (1 :28.931). Hacking had to adjust his front end to cope with the track's bias, five mil- limeters in his case, and it paid immediate dividends. Then there was the issue of tire wear. "The funny thing is, the tire wear was looking really bad, but the actual feel from the tire wasn't too bad," Hacking said. "Dunlop tried a couple things last time I went out on my bike. That seemed to help out a lot. My tire looked really good after a string of 28s. It seems like the hard fronts didn't work for us. The harder the tire, the worse it tore." Hacking said he thought Barber Jason DiSalvo (above) and Damon Buckmaster (below) ran near the top of the Supersport time sheets during the Barber test. All times were captured by AMA Timing & Scoring officials, who monitored the test to check their timing system. was very similar to Virginia International Raceway, site of the penultimate round of the championship. "I was kind of thinking, basically it's pretty much the same racetrack, almost. It's just in a different state." With the Supersport championship almost certain to go to the final race, Hacking wanted to make sure he'd be ready for the final two races. "We roll out of that truck like we are and can jump on track and do 28.4s and do improvement from there. we'll be pretty good," he said. "I think there's a little room in our bikes to improve." Buckmaster ended up with the second-fastest 600 time after only doing about eight or nine laps on Thursday, his times a tenth off what he'd done on Wednesday. "I was pretty comfortable with that," Buckmaster said. "It came really easily. Packed it up. Told the boys that'll do it." Breaking up the Yamaha hegemony was Erion Honda's Alex Gobert, who was fourth fastest, just in front of his brother Aaron. Alex learned about the hard downhill braking when he crashed in turn five on the first day.