The newly launched team of Paradigm Racing, poised to compete in the upcoming 2009 AMA Daytona SportBike Series, just completed their first test session at Homestead Miami Speedway on Sunday, January 18th.
The investment group that formed Paradigm Racing can see the future marketing potential with the newly reorganized AMA Pro Road Racing Series and have secured the services of Barrett Long as Rider and Perry Melneciuc as Crew Chief, to premier a pair of 2009 Yamaha R6’s in the Daytona 200 on March 6th.
The decision to pair the duo was made after a successful run together, qualifying a 5 year old Yamaha TZ 250 at the 2009 US Red Bull Moto GP at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in September.
Melneciuc, a former factory mechanic and longtime AMA 250 GP competitor and Long, a third generation road racer and former Roadracing World Young Gun, have a great chemistry that spans a friendship of over 20 years when Melneciuc competed against Barrett’s father, a world class racer himself, John Long.
The impressively fit Barret Long arrived at the track focused and ready for the task of putting in the laps required to set up new bikes. The team worked tirelessly through a variety of suspension settings and ultimately ended the test with a balanced and well handling motorcycle. Long was extremely pleased with the test saying “this was the best handling 600 I’ve ever ridden.”
This was the first shakedown of the Melneciuc prepared Yamaha. “The team’s goal for the test was to get Barrett comfortably fitted to the bike, make sure we don’t have any ergonomic issues and get in some preliminary suspension testing. I was really impressed with Barrett’s performance. He put in a lot of laps and gave us a lot of great feedback and direction with our suspension testing. At the end of the day we were able to come really close to the track record for a 600, and that was without our engine or electronics package in place” Melneciuc said.
Team Paradigm has one more two day test planned in February before they head to the World Center of Racing in Daytona Beach, Florida to begin their campaign of the 2009 AMA Daytona SportBike Championship.