Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

Er N THE NED I T Troy Corser wheelier his Suzuki during le3ling ot Phillip lslond, I F I t l ,th iult two davs of rhe World YY srp".uit e lests c;ncluded at Phillip lsland, there was no question of the story everyone was talking about: the pace of Alstare Corona Extra Suzuki s Troy Corser. who was even faster - initially - than Dunlop-shod Al'lA Superbike Champion I4at Mladin. who suflered a hiSh-speed crash at Hayshed Corner Given that there had been a measurable disparity between the spec Pirelli World Superbike tires (pro- duced in volume, usually errinS on the side of conservatism) and the traditionally pro- totyped Dunlop tlicks, this came as a rude awakening to some. At time progressed, the story changed a tad, a5 Mladin stepped up his times, but the evidence appeared to point to a marked improvement ofnot iust the pace of Pirelli's mass-produced product, but its endurance in race conditions. Despite his early crash, a sewn-up arm and a patched-up bike, Mladin was able to tet back to grips in his own tutsy way, and he ended up beating Corser's two-day best of l:32.81 with his own l:32.2, even if, according to Corser, he had to resort lo qualifiers to do k - a point llladin adamant- ly denies. According to Corset he se! his best time on race tires, lapping a! a l:32.79 on his final day. Tires, the undercurrent of so many Superbike stories in recent times, were once again the lastins talkinS point o{ the whole exercise, such were the externally minor mods to the championship-winning Suzuki, the relative lack of pace of che Yamaha l"lotor France t.io in actendance, and the 4-year-old Petronas machines- None ofthe ocher world Superbrke malor playeE were there, leavint liftle indication of rhei. relalive per{ormance pararneters. wirh just over a month to the start ofthe l3-round, 26-race season. On the technical front, the main chanSes to the Alsta.e Suzuki appeared to be the adoption of tmction control, at lea5t on Yukio KaSa)6ma's GSX-R. His bike appeared to "mislire" as it accelerated out of comers on occasion, as the traction-control system took over when ir sensed too much wheelsprn. Last year's bike appeared to merely hit the rev-limiter if the ebullient Japanese rider put too many digits on the tach when completing a corner. Kagayama was second quickest on day twoi with Steve l'4artin iust behind third- placed I'lladin, as the FoSgy Petronas rider recovers from his kidney surgery Norick Abe, now pan of the three-man Yamaha Nlotor Frdnce effort, headed up his 2005 panner Sebastien Gimben, with new boy Shinichi Nakatomi some four-tenths of a second behind the Frenahman- After a Lhird day oF teiring, Cor!€r set a final best of 1.32.79 afld ran a fuil race simulation, taking almost l0 seconds olf his previous Suzuki mark, despite track temper- atures which got up to 55 degrees centigrade at some staSes. "We just did a full race simula- tion today, on the 2006 bike," Corser said. "Over 22 laps, I was over 30 seconds faster than last year's race time. That is nearly a second a lap faster than my lap times last year, so I am very happy. l'm really racinS against our own clock, but you have to be happy with consistent 1.33s. I am lapping faster than what we did in qualifying last year, on race rubber, so it is a good si8n.' Tire duration was another plus for Corsel ''l am a Iot more comfortable on the new Pirellis," he said, "l'd say there is half-second there with the tires, with beftergrip. And the rub- ber is lasting; from the first to the lTth lap, there was only two-tenths of a seaond difference. My Suzuki's engne i5 definitely stronger, with more horsepower; there's a differ- ent power curve, and I am happier with it. h just accelerates harder, fastei and it's a bit easier to ride. "lt has been really wonhwhile to do the full race test - we've now done a race, before a race, " he con- cluded. "We've be€n testin8 tires for life for Pirelli, checkinS clutch wear and thinSs like that. Last year, I strugtled with a lot of wheelspin and not too much side trip, but no longet" The three-man Yamaha l.lotor France team quit after the end of the third day, with Gimbert using a new fork and engine-management system to go a second faster than he did in race trim last year On a relatively quiet final day of testing at Phillip lsland, only three of the previous testers, Kagayama and the Peffonas pairing of Steve Martin and Craig lones pu! in real timed laps- Corser, havint already set the fastest Pirelli time of the test on the previous day, tested clutch starts in pit lane, but completed no real timed laps. The quickest man overall would prove to be Mladin, who was even able to test Superstock tires for Dunlop at one stage- Of the three World Superbike riders out on day four, only Kagayama improved his previous best time - in what were risky con ditions. After a near crash for jones. over Lukey Heights, and a few worryinS moments when the wind tot under fairinss. Petronas called off their testing without beint able to do full race imu,ations as planned. Martin, nonetheless, left the Aussie session with a faster time than Ka8ayama, as the Japanese foughtaSainst hith winds on the last day in an effon to redress the balance- The Alstare Suzuki team has no more testint plans before the start of the season, buL according to Corse( (hey are ready in "We could turn up ro mce next weekend and we would be readx" he said. Beint so competitive with Mladin's Dunlop times was good news for both the championship and Pirelli - so said Corser on (he way home from the tests- ''On race tires, Mat was probably about half a second - or two- or three-tenths maybe - slower than me," Corser said. "On an average. He put on a qualifrer and put in a l:32.2 yesterday, but my times were done on a race tire. So I could Probably 8et under that time on a qualifying tire." Corser did use qualifiers at one point, but he did only five or so laps due to a Slitch, and called a halt, preferring to concentrate on a race selup. "lt's been treat to have Maa [Mladin] there, because he's on Dunlops, the good ones, and he's fast," said Corsei "The lap rimes were what I had hoped they would be. They [Pirellij have stepped up. and lhe (ires are a lot better over a long run. l'm really happy wjth it." Still recovering from his kidney troubles, Martin claimed to be 95-percent fit now. ''l'm lapping .onsistently faster than my race pace here last year, on standard race tires, so that's encouraging," Martin stated. "lt's a sign of the amount of development work we've achieved in the last 12 months. I had hoped to do a race simulation, but soon as I woke up this morning and saw the whitecaps of the waves breakinS. I had a feeling our plans for the day would be scup- pered. The plan was to do to a race srmula- tion this moming, which I started, but the wind was so stronS that I had a bit of a moment on Lukey HeiShts and we thought it best not to continue.' Kagayama was third-fastest world Superbike re8ular overall. ''The tests were very good and very pos- itive for our team," he said. "There were no problems and no crashes, thouSh the last da), was a little danterous because of the stront winds. There was a very big tailwind when I was doint my race-distance simula- tion, and goint into tum one was a little scary - but no big problem for me. There were a couple of other turns on the track where I had to be carefLrl, but I was deter- mined to do the race distance - so I stuck it out. I ,ust couldn'c push as hard as I wanted to, because I did nor want to crash. I think the 2006 bike is an improvement over last year's bike. For me, the enSine Ieels a little st.onter, and l m haPPier with the front sus- pension now We tried manythings over the four days, including spendinSa lot of time on the electronics- lt's an erea where you need to spend time away from a race weekend, so it was good to make progress there also. Uke Troy-san, I arn happy and feel ready for the first race. l'd like the same s(aft as last season, plase!" ln his rookie World Superbike season last year, Kagayama left the first round in Qatar as championship leader For ,ones, a rookie this year, his latest taste of three-cylinder power was cut short. "l would have liked ao run a lot more laps today to continue with the good setup direction we found yesterdax so it's disap- pointing that the wind was so strong,' he stated. "But at least we've got a good base setting for (his circuit now so have a good starting point at the race here in a few weeks. l'm feelin8 totally at home on the FP-l and around this circuit and have iust really enjoyed testing these last four days. Ten Kate Honda and DFX Honda teams will rcst at Almeria this week, while the PSG-I Kawasaki team will be in lvlalaysia. The last main European test for most teams will be in Valencia in Spain, Februarr,6-7. The first race is Qatar, scheduled for February 25. Gordon Rhchle o o o o o o o o I St.Ys Mortin ioys the Foggy Pclrcnca is improvod lor 2OO6. Norick Abe wqs the tostGst of dra thrue Yomoho mon ot lhc lctl. I2 TEBRUARY I, 2006 CYCLE NEWS World Su rs On The Island 2 %-t-l \- --l * r 'a .Z aA (, g ,rF-

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