Copyright 2003, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

By David Swarts

AMA teams testing at California Speedway were greeted with no wind Thursday morning at the Fontana, California facility, with temperatures near 60 degrees F and clear skies.

Gusting winds kept temperatures cool and inhibited testing Wednesday, but teams are cautiously optimistic that the weather will remain calm long enough Thursday to get much needed testing accomplished.

Shortly after 9:00 a.m. local time the track went green, and the first rider on track was Team Valvoline EMGO Suzuki’s Steve Rapp on his GSX-R1000 Formula Xtreme bike. Most riders got going shortly thereafter.

At 9:50 a.m. Graves Yamaha’s Aaron Gobert pulled off the front straightaway with his YZF-R1 Formula Xtreme bike smoking. “I think the chain came off and might have banged a hole in the cases,” said Gobert as he walked back to his pit. “That’s what it sounded like, anyway, like the chain came off. There’s all sorts of water in the belly pan, and the engine caught on fire. I didn’t crash. I’m alright.”

Team members quickly extinguished the fire, and the track was not shut down during the incident.