Copyright 2004, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

Mladin On Top

By Bob Dragich

Once again, Yoshimura Suzuki’s Mat Mladin was the fastest rider at a test for Dunlop-sponsored AMA teams. This time, at Infineon Raceway in Northern California, Mladin turned a best lap of 1:37.4 on the newly repaved track with significant improvements in turns one and six.

This year, Mladin is displaying a quiet confidence that says, “I’m here to get the job done.” Mladin said on the second day of testing, “We’re just trying tires today. Dunlop’s got some new ones and they seem to be working out really well. Yesterday, we worked on the bike, a few suspension bits, that’s all. The bike was really good right out of the truck.”

ARCLIGHT SUZUKI:
Arclight Racing was at the test trying out the new-for-them Dunlops after switching from Pirellis. The riders were Scott Harwell, who will be competing for the team in Formula USA and Dave Stanton, who will represent the team in the AFM. The team is committed to riding 750s for Suzuki and, according to team co-owner Chuck Warren, “There’s just no way we can compete with the 1000s” (in AMA Superstock). Rider Chris Ulrich sat out the test while recovering from a broken collarbone suffered at the exit of the Chicane at Daytona.

“This test is basically to teach me the feel of the tires,” said Harwell. “Daytona is a one-off track and it really doesn’t tell you much. We’re trying to get ready for (the F-USA race) at Road America in April. I love the grip these tires have, but the better grip caused us to change everything. We really didn’t go for lap times. My best lap was a 1:43, but we would just do a few laps and come in and make a change. We didn’t do more than five laps in a row.”


ATTACK KAWASAKI:
Tony Meiring’s main concerns were the new Dunlop tires and brake pads the team had gotten since Daytona. The new 600RR that did so well at Daytona was, “Definitely a contender,” according to Meiring. “I wish we were racing here tomorrow. The chassis is identical to last year, and we played a lot with ride height. I like it when the front is low. It turns well but then it tends to push. The good thing is that it’s not spinning the rear too much. I did 30+ laps on a single rear tire and it still wasn’t spinning. We never said, ‘Let’s go for a fast lap time,’ but we still did pretty well.”


ERION HONDA:
Alex Gobert spent much of the test getting physically comfortable on the new CBR1000RR. “We’re back to more what the streetbike feels like, standard bars and everything. We set up the suspension pretty stiffly, but it just wasn’t comfortable. We’re trying to get it to come off the corners better, and we’re definitely making progress.”

Jake Zemke seemed a little frustrated with the CBR1000RR. “We’ve been doing most of our work on the 1000, because it’s brand new and we’ve never had it here before. We’re just looking for a baseline, and we haven’t found it yet. We’re trying to get the whole bike to work together, and, at this point, the bike is better than the rider.” Zemke was one of the only riders who didn’t like the new track surface. The former dirt tracker said, “I always liked this place because everybody (else) complained about it.”


HONDA:
Ben Bostrom said the problem with the 600 was “Power. But we know what it is and we’ll have it fixed by Fontana. The 1000, it’s the front end, fork flex, but we have parts coming and it should be fine. The first day of the test was fairly awful. It was me; I was just riding poorly. There’s a definite chatter in the back of the 1000 that we need to fix, but, overall, I love that bike. It’s got a lot of torque down low, and there’s a lot of grip with the new pavement. It’s harder to steer because the rear grip is so good. With less grip, it’s just easier to point.” Like Zemke, Bostrom, who did his time on the dirt tracks, also said, “I liked coming here when it was bumpy. Everyone would cry, and it definitely gave me an advantage.”

Miguel Duhamel said, “The problem with Daytona was that we didn’t have a good game plan. Yesterday we made tons of progress. There’s a new level of difficulty in the set-up because the CBR1000RR has so much power. We’ve always had power with the Hondas, but nothing like this. We won a lot of races on the RC45, but it needed a lot of testing and adjustment. The CBR was good right out of the box. The feedback from the bike is really good, and here, at Infineon, it’s a testament to how good that bike really is. It’s brand new and we’re on par with the Suzukis which have been in development for a year. It’s really exciting, because it’s good now and who knows what we’re going to discover as we develop it. We didn’t spend that much time on the FX bike, the reason being that it’s already working really good and we were the fastest 600 out there by far.”


KAWASAKI:
Roger Lee Hayden was, “Just getting myself comfortable on the 1000. I haven’t been here in three years (due to injuries each year) and we’re working mostly on getting the bike to turn. It’s also got a chatter that we haven’t figured out yet, but it’s getting better.”

Roger’s brother Tommy said, “We’re mostly trying to sort out the chassis on the new 1000. At a place like this, with lots of power, it’s really important. We’ve gotten a lot of ideas since we rode it at Daytona and we’re trying to go through as much of them as we can with the time we have.”


YOSHIMURA SUZUKI:
Aaron Yates’ Superbike was sputtering coming off the corners. “We rode the Superbike all day yesterday and we were going to ride the 600 this morning, but we’ve run into some issues (on the Superbike).” And it wasn’t just the engine. “It’s just not absorbing some of the big bumps in turn four and the Carousel the way I would like it to, but we’re getting there. The lap times show it.”


YAMAHA and GRAVES YAMAHA:
Damon Buckmaster was splitting his time fairly evenly between the R6 and the R1. “You’re not going to find that much on a Superstock bike here. It’s just got so much torque and horsepower that it’s just a matter of getting it to the ground. I’m not really happy with it yet, and we were just going to try something when the clutch burned.”

Jason DiSalvo spent much of his time getting familiar with the new R1 Superstock bike. “It’s a little bit of everything. We’re trying to get a good balance, and we’re about at 8 on a scale of 10 right now (at the end of the day). We’re just fine tuning it, go out, do a couple of laps, come in. It’s a maximum of one click here or there. It’s really encouraging because the bike is so good right now and it’s brand new.” DiSalvo was nursing some pretty incredible blisters on both hands by the end of the test.

DiSalvo said there really wasn’t much need to do too much time on the 600, because, “We have an almost perfect base setup from last year. The only thing was that I’m faster than last year, so we’re going a little taller on the gearing.”

Aaron Gobert spent the entire first day on the R1. “There’s always something to improve on, but every track we’ve taken it to, it’s been such a good bike. It’s incredible to have that much horsepower and have it still handle that well. What we’re looking for is a good race set-up, we’re not really trying to turn the fastest time. We should be very close by the end of the day.” As far as the new Dunlops went, Gobert said, “I liked the medium compound best. It was better on both (the Superstock and Supersport bikes). They’ll go close to race distance.”

On the 600, Gobert pointed out that they didn’t have that much time on it last year when the basic bike was brand new because the weekend was race-shortened. “Even with that, it came around really quickly anyway.”

Jamie Hacking said he was “Still working on my back (after his fall at Daytona). (Vertebra) C1 (right at the top of the neck) was pinching a nerve going into my brain and it was giving me these headaches. My chiropractor worked on it for three days last week and it seems to be getting better.” Despite that, Hacking was turning some good lap times, but “The new 600 still lacks some front end feel. They changed tires on us from last year when the bike was perfect.” On the R1, “We’re just trying to get it to steer a little better. There’s plenty of power, and we’re about 60% there on the steering.”


AMA Race Director Ron Barrick was at the test and said one area that the AMA would be looking at was turn seven. “The NHRA put in a scale pad in the runoff area. It’s a big, flat metal plate surrounded by Armco. We’re looking into removing the barriers. Also, in 8A, the left-hander, there are some barriers that we’re looking at moving back. To the track’s credit, they did a lot with turns one and six, and the new surface offers much more consistent grip. I think we’re going to set up turn one like last year. The riders want us to move the curb back and up, but I’m concerned about the speeds and the bridge abutment.”

Mat Mladin had a number of good things to say about the improvements Infineon Raceway had made to the track. “They’ve improved it by leaps and bounds in the 10 months since we’ve last been here, that’s for sure. There are still a couple of heavy impact areas, particularly turn seven and turn 10. They would be a problem, especially in the rain, just because you don’t slow down as fast on a slippery surface. They say they can’t do anything about turn 10. But we race at Mid-Ohio in the rain, and these guys have gone way ahead of them, that’s for sure.”

TIMES (as claimed by teams)

SUPERBIKE:
Mat Mladin, Yoshimura Suzuki, 1:37.4
Jake Zemke, Erion Honda, 1:37.6
Ben Bostrom, Honda, 1:37.7
Miguel Duhamel, Honda, 1:37.9
Aaron Yates, Yoshimura Suzuki, 1:38.0

FORMULA XTREME:
Miguel Duhamel, Honda, 1:39.3

SUPERSTOCK
Ben Spies, Yoshimura Suzuki, 1:38.4
Damon Buckmaster, Yamaha, 1:38.5
Tommy Hayden, Kawasaki, 1:38.7
Jamie Hacking, Yamaha, 1:38.7
Roger Lee Hayden, Kawasaki, 1:39.2
Jason DiSalvo, Yamaha, 1:39.4
Aaron Gobert, Yamaha, 1:39.4
Alex Gobert, Erion Honda, 1:41.4

SUPERSPORT
Tommy Hayden, Kawasaki, 1:39.2
Damon Buckmaster, Yamaha, 1:39.3
Ben Bostrom, Honda, 1:39.4
Ben Spies, Yoshimura Suzuki, 1:39.4
Jake Zemke, Erion Honda, 1:39.6
Aaron Yates, Yoshimura Suzuki, 1:39.6
Jason DiSalvo, Yamaha, 1:39.7
Roger Lee Hayden, Kawasaki, 1:39.7
Jamie Hacking, Yamaha, 1:39.9
Aaron Gobert, Yamaha, 1:40.0
Tony Meiring, Attack Kawasaki, 1:40.7
Alex Gobert, Erion Honda, 1:40.9



More, from a press release issued by Infineon Raceway:

Jake Zemke Posts Top Time During AMA Test at Infineon Raceway



Photo courtesy Infineon Raceway/Ian Donald

SONOMA, Calif. – Erion Honda’s Jake Zemke posted the top time during a two-day test session at Infineon Raceway in advance of the Kawasaki AMA Superbike Showdown, presented by Cycle Gear, April 30-May 2.

Zemke, who placed second earlier this month at the season-opening Daytona 200, posted a time of 1:37.6 on the repaved 12-turn, 2.22-mile road course. Four-time AMA Chevrolet Superbike champion Mat Mladin (Suzuki) was second-fast at 1:37.63 and Honda’s Ben Bostrom third (1:37.72). All times were provided by the individual race teams.

Nine riders from manufacturers American Honda, Yoshimura Suzuki, Kawasaki and Yamaha participated in the two-day test, which concluded on Tuesday. In addition, Arclight Suzuki Racing, Erion Honda and Team Attack Kawasaki also participated in the test.

“I haven’t raced here the last two years because I was injured so I’m looking forward to coming back,” said Kawasaki’s Roger Hayden. “I want to prove to myself that I can run with these guys on every track, and I think Kawasaki is going to be real strong here.”

Riders encountered a much different raceway during the two-day test. The road course has been completely repaved, and additional runoff has been created at Turn 1 (120 feet) and Turn 6 (80 feet). Moreover, a new pedestrian bridge will be constructed at Turn 1 for the Kawasaki AMA Superbike Showdown, and it will be positioned 100-feet closer to Turn 2, removing the bridge abutment as a safety issue. The Turn 6 bridge at the Carousel, meanwhile, has been permanently removed.

“Infineon continues to do the work that makes this place much safer, and they’re working with us, the riders,” said Honda’s Miguel Duhamel, a four-time Superbike winner at Infineon Raceway.