One-Day Test For Chris Peris at Thunderhill a “Total Success” Young Gun Chris Peris visited Thunderhill Raceway on Friday June 17th for a one-day test prior to departing for competition in the World Supersport Race at Misano, in Italy. He was accompanied by his suspension tuner, Max McAllister and tested on John Jacobi’s Vesrah Suzuki GSXR600, which is equipped with Pirelli tires. “When we got the call to go to Italy last week, I knew we needed to get Chris some laps on a Suzuki with Pirelli tires” according to McAllister, who normally works as President of Traxxion Dynamics, Inc. “Dunlop is Topline Racing’s tire sponsor here in the States, and they have been really good to us, and given us the good stuff we need to compete against the 18-wheeler guys. However, in the World Series, Pirelli is the spec tire, and Chris has only ridden about 5 laps on them in his life. And he hasn’t ridden a Suzuki since last year, and his dad Fernando thought he should be reacquainted with that as well. I have sponsored Mark Junge’s Vesrah Suzuki Team since 1999, and to test with their championship winning equipment was just what we needed.” Aki Tamura, President of Vesrah Company has traveled to the US and was present with Japanese National rider Mr. Fukuda, who was also doing chassis testing. Mr. Tamura was impressed with Peris right away, as he set the pace at a track he had only ridden once when he was on a 125 many years ago. From hopping into the saddle for the first time, strangely enough, Chris only wanted the shift lever raised about 3mm. Other than that, tiny 145lb Peris liked the riding position of the towering 220 lb Jacobi, and off he went. Peris had only one thing to say after his first ride: “This thing is SO BIG!!!”. Peris normally rides Yamaha YZFR-6s in the AMA Series. “I don’t remember it feeling so big, and I feel so high and far away from the ground!” McAllister set about swapping out Jacobi’s Axxion Valve kitted forks for a set equipped with the AK-20 Axxion Cartridges. Also, a new piggyback style Penske was fitted for testing. By the end of the day, Peris was feeling confident. “The Pirelli Tires worked fine, and the new front tire works much better than the one I rode on before. Max got the geometry and suspension figured out for me, and we made a big leap at the last minute with a rear spring change. I can’t believe how much time this will have saved when we get to Italy.” “The track organizers were so great. They had combined classes since not many people were testing, and right after that, it seemed everybody came out to ride. It was totally unsafe, and Max went to speak with Chris, the Chief Marshall about it. He agreed, and when that session ended, everything was broken back up. I can’t say I have ever seen somebody just see an unsafe situation and immediately change it to make it safe again without any argument or BS whatsoever. That was great.” McAllister added, “This test was totally successful, and we got hours of time on the track. Since we have little to no track time when we get to Italy, I feel like we arrived at a point today where we would be at the end of the second qualifier in Italy. We are WAY ahead of our game because of this test. Big thanks go out to Vesrah Brakes, Mr Tamura, and Mark Junge for allowing us to test with their team.” Peris and his father will travel to Atlanta on Monday to meet up with McAllister; they will leave for Italy Tuesday night. The race will be held on Sunday.