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/1545842
tl- Conrinued lrom pdge 32 to make somethin8 different, and I think it looked quite cool. No one else did, but I did." The new track surface at laguna actually rtarted com- ing up by the end ol the Al4A Superbike race Saturday afte.noon. "l don't know ifthey're goin8 to be racinS this weekend; the track's comlng apart.'' Mituel Duhafiel said after finishint founh. "Turn nine is really bad. I hit a hole there. That's a credit to my bike beinS so good. That hole is just coming up. Turn nine is just coming totally apart. I hit this thin& folded the front and 8ot on my knee, and that was one ofprobably seven moments I had out there, That one was caused by th€ racetraak, where the other ones I was iust try- iht to push a liftle bit." You know the track's not in good condition when ),orr'ae 8efting roosted - in a road race. "l was behind Uason] Pridmore and R% [Hayden] and, man, I was iust gettinS sprayed," lake Zemke said. "l went (hrough allrhree tea.-offs within a matter of two laps. It's comint up really bad right there.' "We have it," Jason PridmoiE sard of his traction con- trol. "We can tum up the percentages and sflfi, but we're not sure what w€ should us€. With our system, we probably need it a little bit more. I can turn my bike now, which is something I haven't been able to do, and that means I can roll the throttle on sooner. I think ther€'s too much of a 8ap where the traction control is workint, so it will still spin up. We have to play with it a bit more now that we know we can ure it, Now we've tot to refine it a little bit. Our motors are dellnitely bet- ter. The Suys did a lot of work between here and Miller, and lthinkthey have more stufl coming for Ohio." The three days between the AMAS decision to allow traction control and the Al'lA Superbike race at l'4azda Raceway Laguna Seca was far too shon for Kawasaki to take advanta8e of it, "HavinS a front-wheel sensor is not going to speed up or slow down the p.o.ess." said Dan Fahie, Roger Lee Hayden's crew chiei "lt's iust time. Time is everythint." Fahie said the.e wasn't enough time to prepare, and ther€ also wash't neart enough time to test the system on the weekend. The Superbikes ended up with 29 minutes of practice - various track p.oblems cut it from 45 minutes - fol- lowed by a 30-minute qualifying session, and then the Saturday race. The team should be more up to speed at Mid-Ohio, in two weeks, But the most p.ogress, and most thorouSh testint, will be done at a two-day Road Atlanta test iust after the Mid-Ohio ra.e. ler€rrly I'lc\Mlliams tested his Warr's {ac-tory Buell XBRR at California's Buttonwillow racetrack prior to Laguna, trying a 16.5-inch front Pirelli slick for the first time. "We tested on Trresday at Buttonwillow," said lYcwilliams. "lt was the ,irst time that I ran the 16.5 Pirelli. ['m] pretty impressed. lt was about 124 ldegrees] when we were standin8 out like this. ln that sort of heat, you don't realv expect the (ire to hold up. They worked sweet, realt 5weet. The bike sErt- ed to do what I wanted it to do. lt steered; it changed direction. I was really, really happy with it." The oriE- nal intention was for the Eritish-based team to do only Daytona and one other East Coast round, but now it looks like they will be doing a few more. "lt's pretty certain I'll race both l'4id-Ohio rounds," Mcwilliams said, "l think what we're trying to do is get a test in berween the two of them, to back-to-back them, real- ly to e\rruate how we're movint forward. So we do one Mid-Ohio, test a little bit, see if we can get a few thinSs ironed out, a.fid decide if we do the second. A little more grunt out ofthe bike is what I'd like to see. I know Erik's been workinS on shaving some weiSht off of it. flhese arel some of the thints we need to do to compete against these Formula Xtreme 8uys." AMA Pno Honda Oils Sup€rsport s€ri€s tu tr roduction-based AMA road racing from Laguna Seca in 2006 was a show that could be spelled with six simple letters: H-A-C-K-E-R. Jamie''Hacker" Hacking was a man on a mission, winning both AMAs production-based classes - Supersport and Superstock. And if one of the races truly showed his deminance, it was his blistering win in the AMA Pro Honda Oils Supersport final. Ben Spies jumped out to the early lead into turn one from sec- ond on the grid, with Hacking, Danny Eslick. Roger Lee Hayden, Michael Barnes and the rest of the 28-rider field riShr on his heels. [ap one was action-packed, with Hayden quickly past Eslick exit- ing tum two, then Barnes following suit, out braking the number 69 going into turn three it was time for the Hacker Show to begin, wirh the Anglo-American lead from Spies in a daring move going into the Corkscrew, imme a gap by the end of the opening lap. And rhat was all she wrote, ladies r. And while it was awesome to watch the ultrafast Hacking pull away he was so smooth and effortless in his riding it was aln]ost borinS. But ari,trx!/:J.!,r,.rr.i .r; CYCLE NE!/r'S . AUGUST 2.2006 35 P I I ,ttordo R.lcslsy Loguno S€cq ,ttonl€r., CA AMA sUP€RSPORT tourld 7 ttrty 23, 2006 > Briefly... /,9,( a Bv Srwr ArLAs PHoros By RrrEs & NE6oN il d ,q \ I f I E_ t \- t l I ,' -f I Jomie Hocking dominqted rhe Sup€riport rq(G st Loguno Seco.