Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

Erion Honda's Jake Zemke (left) and Team Kawasaki's Tony Meiring (above) ran about the same speed aboard their respective Supersport mounts at Barber. Meiring just dipped into the 29s with a 1:29.914, while Zemke posted a personal best time of 1:30.269. going to get a lot rougher, maybe." Yamaha's Jamie Hacking, the fastest of the Supers port set, found the track surface "a little weird. The track surface - you put your knee down on it, and it's got a lot of surface grip on your knee sliders. Gripwise for the tires, it doesn't seem to grip like it should, like it feels like it should be really grippy." "Overall, it's a beautiful facility," Zemke said. "I'm sure if they get the surface fixed up a little bit, it'll be better again." Like Virginia International Race- way, it flows well, has elevation changes and lots of corners but little room for passing. "Everybody said it was going to be nice and wide and plenty of passing, but it's a 21-corner race track with three corners to pass," Buckmaster said. "The racing line is narrow," Erion Honda's Kurtis Roberts said, "really five feet wide, maybe less. It's going to be hard to pass. There's a few passing areas, on the brakes. The fast stuff's going to be follow-the-Ieader." "I think it's going to be pretty BRIEFLY••• American Honda's Miguel DuHamel certainly took the most circuitous path from Mid-Ohio to Barber. While everyone else either drove or flew from Lexington to Leeds, DuHamel was racking up frequent flyer miles. From Columbus he flew to Atlanta, then to his home in Las Vegas. "I did a lot of things at my house and got to bed at four (a.m.l." he said. On Tuesday morning. he flew to San Jose then drove to Fremont to see Dr. Arthur Ting. "He said everything was great. So I left there, then my flight was from San Jose to Atlanta. Atlanta to Birmingham. I got in 11:45 local." With a three-hour layover in Atlanta, DuHamel was told it was only a two-hour drive, so he decided to rent a car. Then he found out there'd be a substantial penalty to void that leg of the trip, so he went back to the airport for the flight. "I had trouble sleeping last night." he said on Wednesday. "Like I said. the lights were on, but nobody was home." American Honda' s Ben Bostrom took delivery of a new ride in Alabama, a red 1964 Cadillac EI Dorado convertible with 39.000 original miles that he'd bought in an auction on eBay. "There were a few other people bidding. I waited until the last 10 minutes." he said. The car was probably going to stay back East until he figured a way to get it to his home in Temecula, California. where it would join the vintage stable. Bostrom already has a 1960 Cadillac EI Dorado and a 1963 Lincoln Continental,convertible. Tire wear was an issue at the 21·turn, predominantly right-handbiased Barber track. But it was the front that was wearing more than the back. "Everybody was chewing up front tires." fast runner Mat Mladin said. "It definitely is an area of concern for everybody. You could even see guys riding out of the pits on the other bikes. and you could see their tires had big lines around them. The rears looked OK. The front. this particular tire. definitely has big problems." On the rear. traction was a problem; rear tire wear wasn·t. Mladin said. adding. "But also I think heat's going to be a problem because you spend so much time on the side of the tire, where it's really easy to heat it up." "Me and Mat (Mladin) ride the front pretty hard," Yosh's Ben Spies, fastest of the FX crowd said. "Our race is only 16 laps or whatever, and I did 12 laps all in the 26 range. It started to tear up. But I think we'll be able to get by. and Jim (Allen) said we might try some dual compound tires or something like that. I think everyone's going to run into that problem. You're leaned over so long. Tum one is a long right-hander. said. "I really like it. It's got good runoff. I'm really happy with it. I don't have any problems. It's actually a blast. I'm having so much fun out there. It's a little bit different than a lot of tracks we go to." And all the riders were in agreement in their admiration for track owner George Barber. "I'm definitely looking forward to the race," Roger Lee Hayden said. "The whole place is just awesome. It looks good. The guy did a good job." "We've got a guy that's willing to spend all his own personal money on making a motorcycle race track, and it's pretty in that regard," Buckmaster said. "You've got to give credit where it's due in that respect. He spent all his own money to try to accommodate us the best he can." eN hard" to pass, Erion Honda's Alex Gobert said. "Everybody seems pretty even in the braking areas. A lot of the time you make up around here is flowing through the chicanes. I think that's where we make a lot of time on each other. It's definitely going to be hard to pass each other." Buckmaster also felt the track needed to be longer: "An extra 30 seconds would have been nice, a bit like Road America." Erion Honda's Roger Lee Hayden had no reservations at all about the track. "The track's a lot of fun," he You're leaned over from turn two to turn four for a good five seconds. Then the last three corners are actually just one superlong sweeping right-hander. You really can't do anything about it. There's so much heat generated. It's going to tear up. I think there's going to be a problem for everybody late in the race. Everyone's going to start losing the front and tearing them up. Dunlop's race manager Jim Allen agreed. "Grip is going to be an issue because you're on the side for so long," he said. As for the fronts, Allen said. "We're a little concerned about the fronts. The easy thing is to compound harder. When you compound harder. you lose grip. We're going to have to look at doing something for this track." Allen didn't rule out building a dual compound tire. "Last year we said we'd do the best we could for every race." The teams were mostly using the standard range of tires, along with a few tires that were first used at Mid-Ohio. "We'll get ideas using the standard race tires to see what the problems are." Allen said. "We have time to make tires for this race." Dunlop introduced a new rear tire that Fuchs Kawasaki's Garry McCoy gave high marks at the German GP at Sachsenring. "There's a good pOSSibility that tire may be here," Allen said of the new profile rear. "We've run that tire 1n one MoloGP test and the race. It hasn't run in World Superbike." Yoshimura Suzuki's Jamie StauHer missed the Barber test after breaking the scaphoid bone in his right hand late in the Pro Honda Oils Supersport race at Mid-Ohio. Yosh team manager Don Sakakura said it would be in a cast for three weeks but that Stauffer should be ready for the race at VIR at the end of the month. The season's winding down, but you wouldn't know it from the traveling the teams are doing. especially Yosh. From Mid-Ohio they came to Barber. They'll get about a week at home, then fly back East to attend a multiteams test at VIR on August 11-13. Another four days home and back East for a three-day Dunlop test (August 19-21) at Daytona International Speedway where they'lI be joined by Honda. Then they head home again for a few days before flying back to VIR for the penultimate round of the Superbike series. By the time he returns to the team' s base in Southern California, Hans Laske, who drives Mladin's transporter, will have been on the road from July 20, after the Laguna Seca race. to September 3. a stretch of six weeks. The stretch is almost as long as the one prior to Laguna. He left on May 11 for Road Atlanta. Road America, Pikes Peak, a VIR test. and Brainerd. On that trek he was out from May 11 to July 3, then home until July 8 when he left for Laguna Seca. AMA pro racing director of timing and scoring Ken Rogers came to Barber to prepare for the AMA race, at the end of August. and to provide times for the teams in attendance. Joined by the AMA's Jim Wardell, a systems analyst/programmer, and operator/technician Mindy Osowski. wife of Joey OSOWSki. team manager for the Bruce Transportation Group. Rogers was able to test the system and work out any possible kinks. The system could be operated by one person. but there'd be a tremendous amount of work. On a race weekend. they'll have another two or three people making sure the back-up systems. wireless networking, Internet postings and hook-ups with the teams are in order. From a logistics standpoint. one of the nicer touches at Barber was the elevator to the third floor timing and scoring suite. There's also easy access of an adjacent deck and the roof. "We've been talking to them for about a year now for the timing stuff," Rogers said. "They got the main loop installed last year and two interval loops this year. We can virtually see them from scoring tower. At Brainerd and Road America. we have to use repeaters. Logistically, it's nice and tidy." In addition to the standard elements. Rogers said the test at Barber gave his team the chance to test improvements for next year. "We try to identify two or three tests a year that give us an opportunity to work on things in a live environment with real issues," Rogers said. "Here, for example, the shortcut (where riders could overshoot turn five and re-join the track on the back straight)." From the timing and scoring center in the paddock building. Roger said, "We can see that. which was good." Rogers said they worked on their Internet application: AMA Timing and Scoring offers a live road race feed on www.ussuperbike.com and www.amaproracing.com. Individual lap times for each rider now include all segment times, lap by lap by lap. "They also updated some firmware in our decoder." Rogers said. "It's nice to be able to do these things without a mission critical weekend. We'll have some new stuff at Daytona tire test, a couple applications at Daytona tire test." Yoshimura Suzuki's Aaron Yates is close to re-signing with the team for 2004, according to his manager, Cliff Nobles. "We are very close. We've agreed in principle. There are things we're working out that should be hammered out by Monday or the end of next week." One of the sticking points is the number of classes he'd ride. "That's in discussion." Nobles said. In addition to Superbike. Suzuki would like him to ride the new 1000cc Superstock class. Nobles said he'd spoken with other teams about Yates' services, but none of the teams would get serious until the AMA announces its road race regulations for 2004. cue I EO n EO _ S • AUGUST 13. 2003

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