Toni Elias was the fastest rider Tuesday, during the first day of a two-day Dunlop and MotoAmerica pre-season test featuring 42 riders at Circuit of The Americas (COTA), in Austin, Texas.

Elias, piloting his brand new Yoshimura Suzuki GSX-R1000 Superbike, led all riders Tuesday with a lap of 2:09.547 while using a standard soft-compound front and prototype rear Dunlop tires. That’s right on pace with the fastest lap Elias turned (2:09.456) en route to winning both MotoAmerica Superbike/Superstock 1000 races at COTA in 2016.

The former Moto2 World Champion, however, was not very happy with his day

“It was a really tough day,” Elias told Roadracingworld.com. “I am happy to be first and not third of something, but we are here for testing and we are not comfortable with the bike. I didn’t have the front feeling that I want. All day we suffer a little bit. The team worked hard and we found some improvements in some areas, but we still have a big problem.”

Elias’ teammate Roger Hayden led three of the four Superbike/Superstock 1000 sessions Tuesday and ended up with a second-best lap of 2:10.103, which also nearly matched his best from last year’s races at COTA. But like Elias, Hayden was not entirely happy with his progress Tuesday.

“I felt pretty comfortable right away,” said Hayden, “but we got stuck a little bit in the middle of the afternoon.”

Hayden said he was looking to make his GSX-R1000 turn better, while Elias said he was still looking for better front-end feel. Both riders, however, said their new GSX-R1000 was much faster than last year’s Superbike and had much greater potential.

Two-time and defending MotoAmerica Superbike Champion Cameron Beaubier was looking to improve on his time in the fourth and final Superbike/Superstock 1000 session Tuesday, but he pushed too hard in the final corner and crashed, ending his day prematurely but without injury. Still, Beaubier finished the day ranked third overall with a lap of 2:10.643 on his Monster Energy/Graves Yamaha YZF-R1.

Beaubier’s teammate four-time AMA Pro Superbike Champion Josh Hayes finished the day with the fourth-fastest time, a 2:11.000, but the veteran was relatively happy with his performance, especially compared with his performance during past pre-season tests at COTA. Hayes said he was really starting to gel with the 2017 version of his YZF-R1 more than ever before and having a lot of fun riding his Superbike.

Bobby Fong claimed bragging rights in the Superstock 1000 category with his lap of 2:11.887 on his Quicksilver Latus motors Racing Kawasaki ZX-10R. Fong, the winner of both Superstock 1000 races at COTA in 2016, said he and his team were trying to take advantage of changes to the technical rules by trying different chassis parts but could not turn the new parts into faster lap times Tuesday. Fong pointed out that his team has several more new parts on the way that should chop significant weight from his Kawasaki and the parts should arrive before the opening races at COTA in April.

In the Supersport class, Valentin Debise led the first two sessions on his M4 ECSTAR Suzuki GSX-R600, but Garrett Gerloff, the defending class Champion, bounced back from a fast crash early in the day to top the final two sessions and the class for the day with a 2:13.197 on his 2017-model Monster/Y.E.S./Graves Yamaha YZF-R6.

“After that [crash], I slowly started to work on setting up my new bike,” Gerloff told Roadracingworld.com. “I had a good set up from our tests at Buttonwillow and Thunderhill, but this track is totally different, but we’re getting things done. The wind this afternoon made it hard to be consistent. Hopefully, the weather will be better tomorrow.”

Debise was happy with how things were going earlier in the day, then he said his progress stalled out. The Frenchman and his crew figured things out, however, and he went even faster, ending up with a best time of 2:13.599, which is equal to his fastest lap from the Supersport race in 2016.

Gerloff’s teammate JD Beach, the 2015 MotoAmerica Supersport Champion, was just a few tenths of a second behind Debise at the end of the day with a 2:13.961. The bigger news, however, is the broken leg that hindered Beach’s performance during other pre-season tests was much closer to 100%, he said.

Brandon Paasch, the 2016 MotoAmerica KTM RC Cup Champion, finished Day One of the test ranked fourth in Supersport with a 2:17.311 on his M4 The 22 Project Suzuki GSX-R600.

The fastest Superstock 600 rider was Nick McFadden with a 2:17.728 on his M4 medAge Suzuki GSX-R600.

Testing continues Wednesday, and like on Tuesday, fans can attend the test for free.

Dunlop Pre-Season Test

MotoAmerica AMA/FIM North American Road Racing Series

Circuit of The Americas

Austin, Texas

March 28, 2017

Superbike/Superstock 1000 Session Four Results (All on Dunlop tires):

1. Toni Elias (Suz GSX-R1000), Superbike, 2:09.547

2. Roger Hayden (Suz GSX-R1000), Superbike, 2:10.336

2. Cameron Beaubier (Yam YZF-R1), Superbike, 2:10.643, crash

4. Josh Hayes (Yam YZF-R1), Superbike, 2:11.000

5. Bobby Fong (Kaw ZX-10R), Superstock 1000, 2:11.887

6. Kyle Wyman (Yam YZF-R1), Superbike, 2:12.191

7. Mathew Scholtz (Yam YZF-R1), Superstock 1000, 2:12.339

8. Jake Gagne (Hon CBR1000RR SP2), Superbike, 2:12.931

9. David Anthony (Kaw ZX-10R), Superbike, 2:13.558

10. Hayden Gillim (Suz GSX-R1000), Superstock 1000, 2:13.728

11. Jake Lewis (Suz GSX-R1000), Superstock 1000, 2:13.860

12. Sylvain Barrier (BMW S1000RR), Superbike, 2:13.949

13. Josh Herrin (Yam YZF-R1), Superbike, 2:14.462

14. Cameron Petersen (Kaw ZX-10R), Superstock 1000, 2:14.619

15. Bryce Prince (Yam YZF-R1), Superstock 1000, 2:16.028

16. Danny Eslick (Yam YZF-R1), Superstock 1000, 2:16.242

17. Jeremy Toye (Kaw ZX-10R), Superstock 1000, 2:17.307

18. Max Flinders (Yam YZF-R1), Superstock 1000, 2:19.034

19. Anthony Kosinski (Yam YZF-R1), Superstock 1000, 2:19.172

20. Mathew Orange (BMW S1000RR), Superbike, 2:22.156

21. Steven Zoumaras (Kaw ZX-10R), Superstock 1000, 2:22.982

22. Joy Higa (Yam YZF-R1), Superstock 1000, 2:23.918

23. Jeremy Cook (BMW S1000RR), Superstock 1000, 2:24.722

More, from a press release issued by MotoAmerica:

Elias Leads Day One of Dunlop Preseason Test

Gerloff Leads the Supersport Class at COTA

AUSTIN, Texas (March 28, 2017) – The two-day Dunlop Preseason Test got started today at the Circuit of The Americas (COTA) with eight 50-minute sessions spread out over the Superbike and Supersport classes and it ended with some familiar names on top of the timesheets.

Yoshimura Factory Suzuki’s Tony Elias came away from COTA Day 1 with the fastest time

In the Motul Superbike class it was last year’s COTA winner Toni Elias leading the way on his brand-new Suzuki GSX-R1000, the Spaniard besting teammate Roger Hayden by .556 in the final session with Hayden’s best coming in the second of four sessions. The two factory Yamahas were next with Monster Energy/Graves Yamaha’s Cameron Beaubier third fastest and just ahead of his teammate Josh Hayes.

Elias lapped at a best of 2:09.547 in the fourth and final session on Tuesday afternoon, just off his best from last year’s Dunlop Preseason test. Beaubier, however, led last year’s test with a 2:08.764 on a qualifying tire and Hayden earned pole position for last April’s race with a 2:09.151, also with a qualifying tire.

Garrett Gerloff was the fastest Supersport rider of the day aboard his Monster Energy/Yamalube/Y.E.S./Graves Yamaha.

Even though he ended up on top, Elias isn’t completely happy with the front-end feel of his new GSX-R. The Moto2 World Champion and MotoGP race winner also had a crash early in the day.

“It has been a tough and difficult day,” Elias said. “I don’t feel comfortable yet, but it has been a perfect lap because I didn’t make any mistakes, the lines… everything was perfect. Some days you feel much better, for example at the Thunderhill test I felt much better and thought I would be half a second faster but I make mistake a lot. Today, I don’t feel comfortable but I had the perfect lap. The team worked hard and we improved, but I’m still missing some front information. With brakes, without brakes, it’s the same feeling and we need to work on that.”

Hayden, meanwhile, was fairly pleased with his day.

“The day went pretty good,” Hayden said. “We got to go through a lot of stuff. It was nice to get a dry day in and get to learn more about the bike. We tried out a lot of things. Some were positive, some weren’t, but we were pretty fast all day and that’s good. We’re always looking for a little more, but we were always toward the front every session and the bike, for me, is getting more comfortable. I’m looking forward to another good day tomorrow.”

The Superstock 1000 class was led on the first of two days of testing by last year’s doubleheader winner Bobby Fong on the Latus Motors Racing Kawasaki ZX-10R. Fong turned in a 2:11.887 – 1.542 of a second slower than his qualifying time from last year’s race.

KWR’s Kyle Wyman was sixth overall today and fifth-fastest Superbike with Yamalube/Westby Racing’s Mathew Scholtz seventh. Genuine Broaster Chicken Honda’s Jake Gagne, Fly Racing/Motul/ADR Motorsports’ Anthony David and Cycle World Suzuki’s Hayden Gillim rounded out the top 10.

A winner from last year also came out on top in the Supersport class with Monster Energy/Yamalube/Y.E.S./Graves Yamaha’s Garrett Gerloff coming out on top of the 19-strong Supersport/Superstock 600 contingent. Gerloff lapped at a best of 2:13.197, off his best from last year’s test of 2:11.987 and his pole time from last year’s COTA Supersport race of 2:11.999.

Like Elias, Gerloff also had a crash, though it was no fault of his own. The defending MotoAmerica Supersport Champion was following Moto3 test rider Gabriel Martinez-Abrego when the KTM-mounted Mexican crashed and took Gerloff with him.

“Today wasn’t too bad,” Gerloff said. “It didn’t start off the best. I had a little incident with another rider and gave my team a little bit of work to do. After that, we put our heads down and worked our way up slowly into the groove. We got into a flow and me and my bike were working together better. It took a little bit of time, but we’re getting pretty close. We have a good setting right now. There are still a few things I’d really like to improve tomorrow that are going to be a big help for the race in a month’s time. I’m excited for tomorrow and I think it’s going to be another good day.”

Gerloff led M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s Valentin Debise by .402 of a second with his teammate JD Beach third and .764 of a second off his pace. KTM RC Cup Champion Brandon Paasch made his Supersport debut a good one, setting the fourth fastest time despite a crash in the third of four sessions. Ridikulous Racing’s Daytona Anderson rounded out the top five on day one.

Day One Lap Times

Supersport

1.Garrett Gerloff (Yamaha) 2:13.197

2.Valentin Debise (Suzuki) 2:13.599

3.JD Beach (Yamaha) 2:13.961

4.Brandon Paasch (Suzuki) 2:17.311

5.Daytona Anderson (Suzuki) 2:17.505

6.Nick McFadden (Suzuki) 2:17.728

7.Lucas Silva (Yamaha) 2:18.854

8.JC Camacho (Yamaha) 2:20.478

9.Brandon Cleland (Suzuki) 2:20.582

10.Jody Barry (Yamaha) 2:22.125

Superbike

1.Toni Elias (Suzuki) 2:09.547

2.Roger Hayden (Suzuki) 2:10.103

3.Cameron Beaubier (Yamaha) 2:10.643

4.Josh Hayes (Yamaha) 2:11.000

5.Bobby Fong (Kawasaki) 2:11.887

6.Kyle Wyman (Yamaha) 2:12.191

7.Mathew Scholtz (Yamaha) 2:12.339

8.Jake Gagne (Honda) 2:12.921

9.David Anthony (Kawasaki) 2:13.498

10.Hayden Gillim (Suzuki) 2:13.728