Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

Other Voice§ Yoshimura Suzuki's Mat Mladin "If they just fix that last corner a little bit, they've certainly made an improvement on what they had by taking out that banking. But without talking to riders and guys who know what it's like to race out there and where the lines are, Bob Barnard has done a great job. I'm sure given a clean sheet of paper he probably could have done a better job. The bottom line is they need to start learning to talk to the riders. "Personally, I think the thing to do was to get a bunch of the riders down here, which they said they were doing to do, which I don't think happened; one or two guys came down pretty late in the decision making process. And that left-hand corner should have been maybe moved just a little bit further away from where it is and then bring it back, so you're actually coming on the straight pretty straight." Yoshimura Suzuki's Ben Spies banking with, the first-gear bends require prudence. Yoshimura Suzuki's Aaron Yates found out the hard way on the first day of the test. EXiting what's now turn five, the rear on his Superstock GSXR I000 spun up, sending it swapping sideways and forward until it spat him off. "I rode it for a while," he said. "It finally bounced me off the front," Mladin's crash came between the two lefts on a stretch of track that runs backward from the old turn six to the old west horseshoe. A new section of pavement has been added well inside the old horseshoe, and there's a grass strip in between. Runoff looked adequate, and some would argue it still is, but not Mladin. The next area of concern is a sweeping right, in front of a concrete bathroom structure, that leads to the left onto the back straightaway. "If you go off-line there, it's pretty slick there," Erion Honda's Alex Gobert said. That will likely change by the time Bike Week arrives. For the test, the track was brand new and dirty, and the longer the test ran, the more traction was offered. With the Formula USNChampionship Cup Series weekend and the AHRMA Vintage Days running before the AMA series arrives, the track should be in much better shape. According to AMA road race manager Ron Barrick, the track is a work in progress, with temporary barriers to be replaced by permanent fixtures. "They're going to put some fencing back there by that permanent buiiding on the right side [of the track]," he said. "Spectators will be able to get on that side and see the action on that side." Barrick was also told Daytona was planning on repaving the entire infield in May. "I was informed yesterday that they're planning on doing a repave of the entire infield all the way through, so instead of right now where the new road course finishes and they have that skid pad, what they call 'back there,' where it's kind of rough pavement," Barrick said. "We can get that paved all the way up to the Speedway. That's supposed to take place in May." As you go back onto the back straightaway, there are a few wallows, and as you're accelerating, the track drops away. "Big wheel spin, Sideways," Yamaha's Aaron Gobert, the 2004 Superstock Champion, said. "Maybe in the future, when it comes race time and we're not all using our heads as good as we should be... maybe we need to revise that section a little bit." Teammate Damon Buckmaster agreed. "There's a big bump coming onto the back straightaway," he said. "When someone loses the front there, you're going to go straight into that light pole or into the wall, and they know it because there's a shitload of Air Fence around it. Just put a bull's-eye on the light pole then." What most riders agreed on was that it would change the nature of the racing. "I don't think there's a whole lot of room for passing in the infield; it's going to definitely change the racing," Aaron Gobert said. "Same old story: Daytona's only won by the draft because there's not going to be anywhere to place on the infield unless you're silly enough to pork everybody. Not to say bad things about the place; they've done their best to make it safer. But it's really hard to have the hardest tires in the world for the bank and then have a street course on the infield. Traditionally, it hasn't really been classified as a street course. Traditionally, it's two turns and you're out of there. Hopefully it gets better. A bit of curbing to finish it up, and it should be better." As for Roger Lee Hayden's thoughts: "It's going to cut down the battles. From the rider standpoint, it's pretty good. For the fans, for Tv, I think it's not going to near as good for them. For me, I like it better because the 600 race isn't going to have I I to 12 guys in it now, because that's going to separate a few people. It's going to make it more of an aggressive race, but it's going to be safer. And that's the key, because as we've all seen, we've kind of escaped lightning here with a few eN big injuries with people." "I guess it's the same for everybody. I'll just leave it at that. It's safer, but it's not. It kind of sucks, actually. Anything to get us off the banking's fine, but it's not fun at all. There's not much passing. It's very slick, too. It's the same for everybody, but we'll see how it goes. It got better and better, and I think by the end of the three days it'll be good. "It's the same for everybody. It sucks, but if you're getting beat, that's just because the dude's getting through there bener than you. Hopefully, we can get some rubber down and the pavement cures and it's more solid. That's what I'm hoping for. I don't know, Iguess their goal is to generate as much heat as possible in the left side of our tires." Ducati Austin's Neil Hodgson "Not bad; it's Mickey Mouse. It's slow and twisty, really twisty. I'm first gear through most of it." Yoshimura Suzuki's Aaron Yates "The new pavement seems to have pretty decent grip, especially compared to this out here and the other part. It gets to squirming around a good bit. A couple of turns are so tight and the rpm's are so low, you're trying to grab a lot of gas and then it does spin, it does a big, old wallow thing, and it's kind of you just got to be on the edge. It takes... Idon't know what it's going to take." Kawasaki's Roger Lee Hayden "There's a few places on the infield I could see, the new section. where they just start the new track where you go right, there's like three telephone poles out there and I'm not real sure about them. Where Mat [Mladin1ran off, Iguess you don't really realize that until something happens. It's kind of bad that it takes somebody like Mat to get all busted up before they figured out, 'Oh, we better move that wall back. It's a little closer than we thought.' Through there and the last right, then the left coming onto the straightaway, that right-hander, that big yellow curbing thing was pretty close to the track. It's definitely safer than it was, but they still have room for the improvement. Hopefully, with Ron Barrick and the AMA here, they've seen it, went out and watched. They should know. Everybody's trying to work with us for safety, and I'm really glad they're going to listen to us." Team M4 EMGO Suzuki's Vincent Haskovec "Two extremes. Very fast half of the track and very, very tight infield. First gear for me everywhere. So that's definitely two extremes, and you've got to find the solution for everybody's sake. It's going to be better for us. For spectators, it's going to be much closer racing. You can make it up something there if you're really rolling, if you got it set up and you got that in you." Jumpman23.com Suzuki's Jason Pridmore "I always think our sport was meant to be fast. We've got four first-gear corners now, so it takes a little bit of the allure away from our sport, but it is better than what we've had. It's a lot less time we've got to go up on that east banking, which is great. That one aspect is great; like, I'm more relaxed. I think taking that banking away has made me feel that way, so that's good. Every time I used to go up on that east banking, Iwas like 'Okay, hold your breath for the next 45 seconds until you get to turn one. tI. CYCLE NEWS • JANUARY 19, 2005 29

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