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/128382
t's not everyday that you get the opportunity ride a factory race bike on your home racetrack, especially bikes like the title-winning Graves factory Yamaha R Is of AMA Superstock Champion Aaron Gobert and his teammate Jamie Hacking. If you read Cycle News on a regular basis, you know that we ship one of these babies to the printer every week, and the day that happens is on Mondays. So when the chance to ride these bikes came up with the ride day slated for a Monday, I was worried I would miss out because boss man Carruthers wouldn't want me to skip out on press day. But I'm not an idiot and wasn't about to squander the chance. After a brief appearance at the office and some I 46 sucking up to the boss man, I was on my way to Willow Springs with visions of setting the lap record in my head. Remember when you were a kid in grade school and the teacher would call you out in front of the class for not paying attention to instructions? Well, I do, because I was one of the kids who always had their minds on something else. But on this Monday, many years later, things were different. I had arrived at Willow Springs hours after journalists from other publications had already been riding the Graves Yamahas. I missed the morning briefing, and therefore missed the whole part about how many laps each of us would be allowed on the two bikes. I did ask team manager Curtice Thom how many laps I should do as JUNE 15, 2005 • CYCLE NEWS I pulled away on Hacking's baby, but I don't think he could hear me through my helmet and over the noise of the engine and exhaust. Alii heard was, "Have fun." So, 14 laps into my six-lap session, I noticed the Graves crew frantically waving the checkered flag at me on the front straight. As I pulled into the pits a lap later, they all breathed a sigh of relief: They had only put in enough VP Racing fuel for around 12 laps! Back to that grade school thing, who knew that I wasn't supposed to go race distance on someone else's fullfactory race bike! After taking a little ribbing from the crew, all was forgiven. But how embarrassed would I have been if I ran the thing out of gas, or worse, ran out of fuel in turn eight and chucked it off into the rocks, lizards and snakes? Privateer racers are always jabbering on about how if they had a factory bike, they would be running up front, and I'm sure there is the rare exception. However, the fact of the matter is that it takes an exceptional rider to extract the most out of a serious race bike such as these two Graves RIs. But the theory isn't completely untrue, as I did manage to tum my fastest lap time ever at Willow Springs on Hacking's bike (a I:27.469). I race a Yamaha R6 at Willow Springs (and a 3-year-old one at that), so if I couldn't set my fastest lap ever on one of these amazing motorcycles, I was going to hang up my leathers for good. The best thing about the time was that dUring the session, my times got quicker and quicker,