Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

short by the engine failure after hooking up with one of his future superbike rivals. "What was really good about it was I got a chance to follow Josh Hayes." Hodgson said. "He's difficult to pass. The guy brakes really, really deep, and that Kawasaki's a rocket ship. What I needed was to do that. I followed him for three laps and couldn't pass him. And I then needed to know that, 'Yeah, my bike's okay, but I need to improve the all important race setup.' So I need to be able to brake deeper. I could brake deeper than him, I knew I could, but I couldn't sort of turn in; I'd miss the apex." American Honda's Miguel Duhamel was the second fastest of the superbike men at I:27.3 as the team continues to develop the kitted Honda CBR IOOORR. The time was off Duhamel's best, but he said he wasn't interested in lap times. American Honda is in the rare position of playing catch-up and they, more than anyone else, need track time. Teammate Jake Zemke said they should have started the in-house program a year ago. At the Daytona tire test, team coordinator Ray Plumb said they were four months behind, a sentiment echoed by others. "I agree," said AI Ludington, Duhamel's crew chief. "But I think we've cut our four months down to two months, and if we can do that again in one more test, we can show up maybe a month behind. I'm not going to say we can go down there and outrun everybody, but I think we can go down there and at least hold our heads up and with a little bit of luck get a good result. Obviously, the goal is podiums right through, and I think we can stick to that goal now. The light at the end of the tunnel is getting a little brighter." The upside is that they're no longer constrained by the rigidity of Honda Racing Corporation guidelines. The HRC kit for the CBR IOOORR, now in use worldwide, has completely changed the feel of the motorcycle. "In the past, we couldn't change stuff, where now we're relooking at it with fresh eyes," Ludington said. "From a feel point of view, particularly in front-tire feel, one structural change made about an 8 million-percent difference. And you look at it and you go, 'Why didn't you do that 10 years ago" We couldn't. When we make that big a gain on small items, by just looking at them with a fresh set of eyes it makes you real optimistic that we can get where we need to be in a suitable time frame." Duhamel said there was a lot of work to do after Daytona and that progress was steady. "We're making leaps and bounds, which is kind of good and bad," he said. "When you make a leap it's because you needed to make one. We're able to do that now. I think we've got a good direction. I think everything's going the right way; we're discovering a lot of good things." Asked how things were going, a team Tommy ttaYd.n con_dIaled hit teItIng ..... on fiI. new 600. member said with a smile, "Miguel's throwing his gloves around, so everything's normaL" "I talk to the boys; let's not forget now, we don't have just one door to go through, we can open door two and three," Duhamel said. "We're all animals at our base, and you do something one way for so long, you're not permitted to do other things. You get that freedom, you've got to remember you have that freedom and let's do it. The guys are all on the same page they're all doing some good work. Like I said, this test was wonderful and needed, and I feel quite a bit better now." "My pressure level went down a few degrees because after Fontana it was quite high," Duhamel added. With so much ground to cover in such a short time frame, Duhamel and Zemke and their crews are sharing all information. "We're smart enough to know we need to work together to get this going in the right direction because we need a big push." Duhamel said. "We started a little bit late, there's no denying it. Fontana, we were off by about three seconds. That usually gets me a little unnerved." At the end of the shortened day, Duhamel was competitive but wanted more. "I wanted to post one of those 26s up there," he said. "The bike was getting better as we were going along but we didn't have time to change tires. We changed the bike and tried that and got caught in the rain again. We didn't get done everything we wanted to get done." Both Attack Kawasakis hit the ground and in the same place - turn five. Ben Attard was the first to go down, on his supersport bike, followed by teammate Josh Hayes on the superbike. "I had a bit of a mechanical issue [going into the corner]," Hayes said. Hayes started the test behind and ended the same way. His lone day at Fontana had been less productive. "The bike didn't make it out the first day," he said. "We had some issues getting some pieces together for the bike. We were really counting on the second day, but we got rained out." The team stayed for a Sunday track day, where Hayes and Attard spent their time dodging some very slow street bike riders. "Not quite all the laps we were hoping for heading for Daytona," Hayes said. "We feel like we have a much better bike than we had for Daytona there in the test." In addition to damaging his ZX-I ORR, Hayes banged himself up. ''The foot peg went into my underarm and ribs," Hayes said. "I banged up my ribs pretty bad. It was kind of tough wrestling the bike around the rest of the day." Ducati Austin's Eric Bostrom ended the test still looking for a balance on the Ducati 999 F05 and with a best lap of 1:27.80. "We just haven't been able to get the bike settled in to where I feel comfortable leaning it over," said Bostrom, who struggled with the front all last year. "It's been a struggle today, definitely not good." The component he spent the most time with was the new Ohlins front fork. They work a little better, but not well enough. "Trying to get it dialed in; on the way in, the back's trying to pass the front," Bostrom said. The switch to Dunlop from Michelin has been an upgrade, Bostrom said. "They've got more side grip that we were hurting for last year. I think we're in pretty good shape on the tires - we just need to get the bike to where I'm comfortable and have some feel, because right now, going in on the brakes, the back's so vague that I can never really tip the bike in and know actually where I'm at with it. I'm unwilling to just have this unknown high side as you enter the turn, or whatever, so until we get the back end kind of settled down and in the turn, I'm going to be in bad shape." CYCLE NEWS • MARCH 2, 2005 47

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