Copyright 2002, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

By Beth Wyse

The second day of AMA team testing at Road Atlanta got started late for the same reason as the first day: Turn five had water flowing onto it from the saturated ground beside the track. Road Atlanta’s maintenance crew put oil dry down to soak up some of the water, but the turn remained damp throughout the morning. Most teams sent out representatives to go inspect the turn themselves and bikes did not get on track until 10:30.

Damon Buckmaster was the first rider on track this morning. Buckmaster was not able to ride during the first day of testing because all of his gear was in the Graves Yamaha transporter, which just arrived last night. He spent the day testing both his YZF-R6 and his R1-powered Formula Xtreme YZF-R7.

Anthony Gobert has new suspension components on his Yamaha YZF-R7 Superbike this season, and spent the day trying to find the right set-up for Road Atlanta. “We got new suspension parts earlier in the year and it’s kind of frustrating because now everywhere we go we have to waste a lot of time getting it dialed in,” explained Gobert. “It’s frustrating because I want to go fast, and I’m in and out, in and out, changing (the set-up).” During the afternoon sessions, Gobert ran 22 laps on the same tires before putting in a fast time of 1:24.6.

Yoshimura Suzuki’s Jamie Hacking spent most of his time riding his Supersport GSX-R600 with his mechanic making adjustments to the engine tuning. Hacking posted the quickest 600cc time of the day with a 1:27.6, nearly an entire second faster than Tommy Hayden’s fastest time on the Kawasaki. Hacking spent the afternoon riding his GSX-R750 Superbike.

Mat Mladin continued working on his Superbike’s race set-up, running in the mid-to-low 1:24s today. He is determined to repeat his prior success at Road Atlanta. “I expect to win. I never expect anything less than to come to a race and win,” said Mladin. “We have to win, anyway, because we need to catch up, so there’s really nothing else we can do.”

Aaron Yates spent the entire day on his Suzuki GSX-R750 Superbike, posting a fast time of 1:24.6 and working on race set-up.

Kawasaki’s Tommy Hayden is concentrating on getting used to riding the Kawasaki ZX-6 for the first time at Road Atlanta and making suspension changes. Hayden felt that the bike was uncomfortable on the first test day, but that the team is heading in the right direction now with the current set-up of the bike.

Tony Meiring is feeling more confident on his Kawasaki. After making extensive changes on the bike, he says he feels good and he dropped his lap times for the second day of testing.

Doug Chandler was running consistently in the 1:24.6-24.7 range, matching his fastest time from yesterday. He felt good on the HMC Ducati and enjoyed running with Nicky Hayden and Miguel Duhamel during one of his sessions.

Nicky Hayden spent much of the day on the track, and his lap times showed that his efforts were worthwhile. He posted the fastest time of the day with a 1:24.0, beating Mladin’s fast time by 0.2-second.

Miguel Duhamel continued to work on the set-up for his Honda RC51, coming into the pits frequently for adjustments. His fastest time of the day was a 1:24.8.

Chris Ulrich spent the entire day on his Valvoline Suzuki GSX-R750 and used most of the morning track time to test brake pads. After some minor suspension changes, Ulrich went back to the brake pads he normally runs and continued practicing throughout the afternoon, turning a total of 59 laps.

Tom Kipp rode his Valvoline EMGO Suzuki GSX-R1000 Formula Xtreme bike all day, although he has not yet settled on the best set-up for the bike. Both Kipp and Ulrich said they will focus on testing different compounds of Michelin tires tomorrow.

FAST TIMES, SUPERBIKE:
Nicky Hayden, Honda RC51, 1:24.0
Mat Mladin, Suzuki GSX-R750, 1:24.2
Aaron Yates, Suzuki GSX-R759, 1:24.6
Anthony Gobert, Yamaha R7, 1:24.62
Miguel Duhamel, Honda RC51, 1:24.8
Doug Chandler, Ducati 998, 1:24.6

FAST TIMES, SUPERSPORT:
Jamie Hacking, Suzuki GSX-R600, 1:27.6
Damon Buckmaster, Yamaha YZF-R6, 1:28.9
Tommy Hayden, Kawasaki ZX-6R, 1:28.5
Tony Meiring, Kawasaki ZX-6R, 1:30.4

FAST TIMES, SUPERSTOCK:
Chris Ulrich, GSX-R750, 1:27.7

FAST TIMES, FORMULA XTREME:
Damon Buckmaster, Yamaha YZF-R7/R1, 1:25.2
Tom Kipp, Suzuki GSX-R1000, 1:25.77