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Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/1542347
I
For tlE €th time in hb AI'IA Superbike
creer,
Yo6hi.nui-.g.ra*i's
l.lat
i{ladin
put
his GsX-R
on
pole pGition for the Daytona SuPerbike
Series opener.
He dll so
with a new lap record
of
I :37-075 - over a second
quicker
than
hi5
pole-positiofr
!*ne
of a
)€ar
a8o-
"The ben lap
was done
on the sem€ tire that these
guys
done
rheir best laF6 on
in the test
here in D€cembei
'
said Mladin,
wflo miss€d dle off-season
trre test
at Oaytona beca6e of
anlde surgeq,,-
"lt se€rns
to ofler
a little bit rnore
trip.
50 dlat
s
what
our
b€6t hp was done on.
I went out tlEre
at the
end with
the tire ttEt
we'r€
going
to race on,
and it fek
prett,
good
too.
I
irat
got
cat€tt
uP in
tlle middle
of
a
lap with
someone and had to
stop
k. hrt it was a
tood
seasioo."
Mladin said
not teding
at Daytona wasn't a
hute disadvantate.
"We
haven
t been
here for
l2 months,
and die bike
is c€neinly very diller-
ent
to what it was l2 rno.ldls
ago. At dEt s68e,
it was a baand-new
mo@rcyde.
For sure it
Pub
you
at
a lide bit of a disad!'antage.
bLrt the
rrf,e-
track still
Eoes
the same
way.
We've
8ot
more
gnp
on dte
inf'eld, which sho\ds
in
the
laP ume6.
S€ven llat compared io 8.2
last
),ear.
Haf of that
is the racetrack, and
h6Jf b the devdoprnent
of
the rnotorc/cle
-
ari
the tires, of
course. For
sure,
yesterday we had a few thinSs to
run
ttro|€h,
ttrEs w€ hadn t seen
before.
We had to
get
through
d!em, and
I did a couple of long
runs,
and it was
8ood."
Talk of tra.tion corrlrDl
won't
go
away,
and
Mladin.'tas asked about
h in his
post{ualiting
pres!
conference.
"lt's
funny
you
brinE uP
fut
issue," Mladin said.
'iAs
we
ve seen in a
lot ofthe
press,
I $ink
UameslToseland
ern€ o(n the
odEr
day and said Du€t'
has had traction con-
trol for a
long time.
They've b€en usinS it a lon8
time.
Obvioust, my biggest crilic
in this
Paddock
was
Eric Bo6trom,
who was sayin8 l had tracion
control,
and all drc rest of
it, wtEn he w"6
riding
the rnotorcycle
that everyon€
knows llad trac-
tion controi
- esp€cialv now
lfroy]
Corser's
now come out
and said Suzuki
has traction con_
trol for 2006.
He's never
(tsed
it before.
The
bottom line ia that
our rule5 state
you
can't have
traction
control.
When smoke comes ofr
a tire,
typi€lt if
you
have
got
it, it s not
workirE
v€ry
well.
And I know
there's smoke comirE
otra lot
of
tir€6 out tfEre. Except the
Ducati,
of coulse."
Hladin also
addressed the topc
of larnch coo.
trol.
"l
rEed it." Mladin said,
latEhinS. "l don t
l|ave
it- I mean, we seen on d]e sheet,
I definitev
need launch cortrol.
But no,
we dont have it.
We ... I'v€
had sorne issues with the
dutch,
iust
because of $e way
I like rny clutch
to work
we're usinS a different
clutdr for'06, and
it\ one
that bI the end of the
Fontana lest
a few \,,/€eks
ago, I felt comfortable
with. ln Australia
we w€nt
back and forth
between our
rqgular dutch and
the rEw clutch,
and I finbhed up
in Alstralia,
testrnE ar
Phillip lsland,
with our clutch from last
year.
I ttlought,
'This
is
toing
to be
it for another
yeir.'
But they tumed
out sorne
rnore surfi for
the neri,r
one, and the clurch ia
iust
brilliant.
ltl
just
a much,
mllch better system.
Getting ofi the
line
now is
iust
so much easier" So
does Mladin
think th€re s
launch cortrol
in the
World
Super_
bike
Series?
"l
don t know. To be
hone$ with
you.
I don t re-ally
watch h. I dont
follow it too
much. Especially
now. after they all
8o(
dle shiB
when I srnoked dlem at
PhilliP
lsland."
Mladin's
Yoshimura S@uki
teammate
B€n SPk's
came close to
matchin8
Mladin on
qualiryinS
day.
Continued
on
Pdge
23
WS
.
MARCH
22, 2006
2l
Briefly...
3r
I
\
I
.,
I
I
\
I
)
\
L
o
q
4
/0
'\
'lrll
tl
\l
a
shows
his
mettle
once
again
in
winning
at
DAYTONA
''l
knew
I didn't
have the
pedect gear-
ing
for the bi8 draft to the
line,'' Spies
said.
''He
[Mladin] iust
kind of checked
up and
looked at me, and
I thought
I was riSht in
the
power
of the bike.
I
just
ried
to keeP
my momentum
going,
and thought
I miSht
be able to
hold him
off. But I couldn't
quite get
... there was a
lapper cominB
uP,
and
I couldn't
quite get
in his draft.
lt did-
n't work out, but
I was
just
happy we
stayed
with him the
whole race and
got
away
from everybody."
Get away
from everybody
rhey did,
the two
Yoshimura Suzukis
clearly still
a
step above
of the
rest. But the step
may
not be as big as
it
was
last
year.
Third
place
went to American
Honda's
lYiguel
Duhamel,
the French Canadian
getting
the better
of
Parts Unlimited
Ducati's
Neil Hodgson and beatinB
him to
the line by
just
under
a second
The
Honda CBR l000RRs
are
obviously
improved,
with both Duhamel
and
his
teammate
lake
Zemke believing
that
they'll be even closer
to the
Suzukis
post-
Daytona.
Even though
the two Suzuki's
were
able to
get away,
with rhe
pair finrshrng
over
five seconds ahead
of the
battle for
third, the
race at the front
was inreresting
to the very end.
Ditto
the battle for third.
For the majority of
the
ls-laP final
there
were five riders battling
for the final
rostrum spot
-
and two
of them were the
Kawasakis
in the
ZX- loR's
AMA
Superbike
debut.
Both of the
Hayden's
were impressive.
though
only Tommy
would see
the finish line,
lt was Roger
Lee
he
went out of the
race on the
l2th lap
after
moving into
fourth with a
pass
on
Zemke. Shortly thereafter,
Ro3er
Lee was
highsided
from the ZX- loR and
Zemke
was
forced !o
run off the track in an effon
to avoid him.
Zemke would
end up bat-
tling
more than
iust
that,
as arm-pumP
plagr-red
him
throughout, and
he could
muster no better
than eighth
at the finish.
He thouShr
he had the
motorcycle to
win
the
race, and was
disappointed with
his
performance.
Tommy
Hayden ended up takinS,ifth
in
the Kawasaki's
debut,
but it was a bitter-
sweer
day for the team
as
Roger Lee
ended
it on crutches with what
is believed
to be a
hairline fracture
in his right foot.
Still, the team is a
welcomed
addition the
field, with
two more factory
bikes show-
ing they
re already
fully capable of
running
near the front.
Sixrh
place
went to the
third
Yoshimura Suzuki,
ridden
by the iniured
Aaron Yates, the
Georgian
having suflered
a broken
shoulder last
month in a testing