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/128320
More Daytona Worries he re was disappointment in the AMA Superbike paddock over the announcement that Daytona International Speedway would not be changing the road course during its nearly fIVe-month closu re for construction beginning midsummer. Now was the mom en t for the Speedway to listen to the concerns of riders who feel the track is unsafe for modern Superbikes and who 'd proposed various changes . Instead, it saw T plans for greater fan access, a new tunnel, and a new Victory Lane. But that may not be the worst fall-out. Tire companies who rely on testing at Daytona to produce a product capable of withstanding the rigors of the following year'srace may not havetime to react to the increased level of performance that evolution will undoubtedly bring. And they worry what will happen ifthey have to face the high banks in March with an untested product. "The key to racing at Daytona is the ability to do some meaningful testing during the off-season:' says Dunlop's Jim Allen, the tire technician with the most experi- ence at the Speedway. Over the last few years , Dunlop has tested in August and again in December and in October this year when the outcome of the August test was unsatisfactory. With the Speedway expected to be shut from early July to the end of December, two of those test dates won't be available. "So if you can't do anything until the beginning of January, the best you can hope to do is build the tires in January, get them on a boat , ship them over here, get them here by mid-February, end of February:' Allen said. "Y can air freight, but you're ou adding $30 onto every tire ," Not only does it add to the expense, it denies them a follow-on test. "We've been in position where we've supplied the bulk of the field for the past few years :' Allen says. "It's very easy for a tire manufacturer to supply one guy or two guys. They can build 20 or 30 tires easy. But, historically, we do our very best to supply all the classes and all the field [he estimates they ship 2000 tires for Bike Week] . So we 're looking at a tremendous amount of expense, and we 're looking at a tremendous amount of development all crammed into one short time zone where there's no possibility of correcting any possible errors you might make in design or exe cution." Miche lin's Jea n He rlsse isn't new to Daytona, but he'd been away from the 200 for a number of years (Herisse did attend last fall's Formula USA season-ender). The troubles Michelin had in both January testing and the March race once again proved that Daytona is the most difficult and unique racetrack in the tire world. Not testing in December will "make it more difficult because there is not enough time already to work: ' Herisse says. "I will say at the maximum we could do a test end of January, but if we go over that, it's too late. No time to do a new tire for the race." Herisse believes this year Michelin could produce a tire for the race in a short time span, but that 's due to a few reasons. First is the knowledge gained this year. "This year I would say no, but now I say yes, because we have been there this year with Eric [Bostrom), and it was not that bad ," Bostrom had a front tire failure in the sec ond half of the race , but Herisse said it looked like that was a puncture. "It' s hard to win Daytona with only one rider, but we did our best , and I think Eric did a really good job. He was on pole, and he was leading the race ," Michelin'ssecond advantage is that it supplies very few riders. Among the factory Superbike teams, it had only one rider to Dunlop's six and a far lesser number in the other classes . Still, He risse adds , "We 'd Superbike . Kawasaki will have a Superbike . I think we can assume that the job at hand will be more difficult again in 2005 than it is in 2004 . That's the big concern. You can't just say this is what we did last year, we 'll do that again. It's not going to be good enough . says. "I don't know how much until we test. I remember when we had a meeting with the AMA, they asked us which one was worse, which banking was worse? I said, 'I don't know exactly. Right now it's the sec- We're in a position where we can only come going the other way around, I would say the other one,' The proble m is that there are two. I think after that , if we do only one banking, it might be closer to a racetrack like Pikes Peak or something like that, maybe not as hard as like Daytona is now. Until you test, you can't tell ," Another solution would be moving the date of the race , though that's highlyunlikely. Asked if that would help, Allen said, up with new ideas at one quick test. There's no proof. There's no time to make counter - measure tires . I don 't think we 're prepared to do that ," There's no good solution right now for a company that supplies so much of the field. "First of all, the scenario we're presented with now is not a good one . If it gets any worse than that , I don 't see how we can go there and race:' Allen says. One of the hoped-for solutions is adding "That gives us a reasonable amount of time at least to look at what's going on and make rather have two tests." a road course section in the east end of the some intelligent decisions. Possibly have a Michelin was planning on using the fall Race of Champions as a test, but that's been canceled as well. Allen said that in last October's test, the tire that won the March 200 wasn't good enough . "We blistered a tire with a compound on a tire that we successfully used in the race : ' Allen said. "Would you bet against Suzuki having eight injector fuel bodies next year? This year they couldn't use them by rule , but next year the street bike w illhave them. The bike will be better. Yamaha will have a Speedway. "If we can get the bikes off one banking and do an infieldcourse, it'd be a huge difference:' Allen says. "We 'd still have to use similar tires I think in dual compound and hard compound, but it would make a huge differ- second test . Basically what we'd be doing is cramming the same amo unt of work into two months rather than what we have now, ence to the stress that the tires are under." Allen says his comfort level would increase if there was only one banking to worry about: "It' d be a much easier job if we were to use one banking or the other, but not both ," Herisse agrees. "It will change a lot:' he Kawasaki KX450F Getting Closer Kawasaki was scheduled to debut officially the new KX4S0F-SR at the open ing round of the All-Japan 250cc MX Championship Series, April I I. Altho ugh we could not get information on how it performed before this issue went to press, 'I etsuya Mizoguchi, who wo n the 12Scc All-Japan MX title last year on the KX250F, did ride the bike in a "practice" race in March. Kawasaki engineers concluded that test/race at a prede termi ned time, approximately halfway through the moto. Kawasaki has not released much information about the KX4S0F, but we do know that it features a 449cc DOHC 4-valve motor, housed in a semi-double cradle frame with a unique tapered boxsection backbone tube. 4 ond one because it comes after. If we were APRIL 21, 2004 • CYCLE NEWS 4 0th Anniversary three months." Herisse, like Allen, is worried about construction delays that might further push back the test date, even though the track needs to be open for the World Karting event between Christmas and New Year's. "W ith construction, you never know, " Herisse said. "I wish we could go twice for really to have a good test," Henny Ray Abram. Suzuki Castrol Team Wins Assen The Suzuki Castrol team of Vincent Philippe. Olivier Four and Matthieu Lagrive rode the ir Suzuki GSX-R I000 to V ictory in the Assen 500 on April II , the foursome winning the eve nt by just 28 seco nds after nearly three hours of racing. A close second place went to Yamaha - GMT 94, the te am's RI ridden by William Costes, Sebastien Gimbert and David Checa. Endurance Mot038, a second Yamaha RI-equipped team , finished t hird, two laps behind, with Gwen Giabbani, Frederic Jond and Stephane Duterne handling the riding chores. The Assen 500 was the opening round of the Worid Endurance Championship.