This featured article is brought to you by ECSTAR Suzuki Genuine Oil:

Roger Hayden won bragging rights March 29 by posting the fastest lap time of anyone during a two-day Dunlop/MotoAmerica test at Circuit of The Americas, in Austin, Texas.

Riding his new, 2017-model Yoshimura Suzuki GSX-R1000 with a rear Dunlop qualifying tire mounted, Hayden circulated the 3.4-mile road course in 2:08.305, which is the fastest any MotoAmerica Superbike has ever gone at the track.

“The test went good. We got through a lot of stuff,” Hayden told Roadracingworld.com. “It’s always nice to be quickest at the end of the test, but more importantly we were fast all week and right out of the gate.”

Hayden’s teammate Toni Elias was top dog on Day One of the test, but the former Moto2 World Champion came up slightly short of Hayden’s mark with a 2:08.432 on his Dunlop qualifying tire.

Both Hayden and Elias said there is more to come from their new GSX-R1000s once they get the front ends of their motorcycles working the way they want them to, but both were enthused about how competitive their new Superbikes are so early in their development.

Two-time and defending MotoAmerica Superbike Champion Cameron Beaubier said he and his Monster Energy/Graves Yamaha YZF-R1 both improved from Day One to Day Two, making it a productive test overall. When the qualifying tires came out at the end of the day, however, Beaubier’s 2:08.827 ranked as third-best.

Beaubier’s teammate, four-time AMA Pro Superbike Champion Josh Hayes, also utilized a rear qualifying tire to do his best lap, a fourth-fastest 2:09.696, in the final session. Hayes said he was losing a large amount of time in one sector of the track, but Hayes also said that he was more comfortable with his Yamaha Superbike than he has been in the last two years, leaving him optimistic.

Fifth overall and the quickest of the Superstock 1000 riders was Bobby Fong, who did 2:09 laps on both a rear qualifying tire and a race-compound rear Dunlop. Fong’s fastest lap was a 2:09.745 on his Quicksilver Latus Motors Racing Kawasaki ZX-10R, and that’s 0.8 second faster than Fong went en route to winning both Superstock 1000 races at COTA in 2016.

Kyle Wyman mounted a qualifying tire to his KWR Lucas Oil Millennium Technologies Yamaha YZF-R1 Superbike and lapped the circuit in 2:10.521, bringing him up to sixth overall at the conclusion. Team owner/rider Wyman said he was happy to see that all of the money he spent upgrading his Superbike during the off-season translated to faster lap times.

Former AMA Pro Superbike Champion and 2016 MotoAmerica Superstock 1000 Champion Josh Herrin ended up seventh in the final session and seventh overall with a time of 2:10.627, which he did with a qualifying tire on the rear of his Wheels in Motion Western Service Meen Motorsports Yamaha YZF-R1 Superbike. However, Herrin said his test suffered due to problems with some of his new Superbike wheels.

South African Mathew Scholtz left COTA thinking about what might have been. Scholtz was eighth overall and second among Superstock 1000 competitors with the 2:10.977 he did on his Yamalube/Westby Racing Yamaha YZF-R1 in test session seven. But the 24-year-old crashed his motorcycle in each of the final two sessions (without serious injury) and missed his chance to push for his outright best lap time on a qualifying tire.

Former MotoAmerica Superstock 1000 Champion Jake Gagne used a rear qualifying tire to make a big jump up the order in the final session and finish ninth overall with a 2:11.122. Gagne was especially enthused with his time considering his Broaster Genuine Chicken Honda CBR1000RR SP2 Superbike is still running a stock engine and unmodified Engine Control Unit (ECU), among other stock parts.

Cameron Petersen rounded out the top 10 overall with a time of 2:11.506, which he did in session seven while using a rear qualifying tire on his Fly Street Motul ADR Motorsports Kawasaki ZX-10R Superstock machine.

Dunlop Pre-Season Test

MotoAmerica AMA/FIM North American Road Racing Series

Circuit of The Americas

Austin, Texas

March 29, 2017

Provisional Combined Superbike/Superstock 1000 Test Results (All on Dunlop tires):

1. Roger Hayden (Suz GSX-R1000), Superbike, 2:08.305

2. Toni Elias (Suz GSX-R1000), Superbike, 2:08.432

3. Cameron Beaubier (Yam YZF-R1), Superbike, 2:08.827

4. Josh Hayes (Yam YZF-R1), Superbike, 2:09.696

5. Bobby Fong (Kaw ZX-10R), Superstock 1000, 2:09.745

6. Kyle Wyman (Yam YZF-R1), Superbike, 2:10.521

7. Josh Herrin (Yam YZF-R1), Superbike, 2:10.627

8. Mathew Scholtz (Yam YZF-R1), Superstock 1000, 2:10.977

9. Jake Gagne (Hon CBR1000RR SP2), Superbike, 2:11.122

10. Cameron Petersen (Kaw ZX-10R), Superstock 1000, 2:11.506

11. Jake Lewis (Suz GSX-R1000), Superstock 1000, 2:11.781

12. David Anthony (Kaw ZX-10R), Superbike, 2:11.811

13. Sylvain Barrier (BMW S1000RR), Superbike, 2:12.115

14. Hayden Gillim (Suz GSX-R1000), Superstock 1000, 2:12.352

15. Danny Eslick (Yam YZF-R1), Superstock 1000, 2:12.661

16. Bryce Prince (Yam YZF-R1), Superstock 1000, 2:14.666

17. Max Flinders (Yam YZF-R1), Superstock 1000, 2:15.400

18. Jeremy Toye (Kaw ZX-10R), Superstock 1000, 2:15.492

19. Anthony Kosinski (Yam YZF-R1), Superstock 1000, 2:17.516

20. Jeremy Cook (BMW S1000RR), Superstock 1000, 2:19.766

21. Steven Zoumaras (Kaw ZX-10R), Superstock 1000, 2:20.687

22. Mathew Orange (BMW S1000RR), Superbike, 2:22.059

23. Joy Higa (Yam YZF-R1), Superstock 1000, 2:22.185

More, from a press release issued by MotoAmerica:

Hayden Takes Top Spot In Dunlop Test At COTA

Gerloff Again Leads Supersport Class

AUSTIN, Texas (March 29, 2017) – Yoshimura Suzuki’s Roger Hayden turned the tables on the competition during the final day of the Dunlop Preseason Test at Circuit of The Americas, the Kentuckian clicking off a 2:08.305 late in the last session of day two to take the top spot.

Hayden was .127 of a second better than his teammate Toni Elias, the Spaniard having logged the best Motul Superbike class time yesterday. Third quickest, and the final rider to break into the 2:08s, was two-time defending MotoAmerica Superbike Champion Cameron Beaubier. Beaubier was a tick over half a second off Hayden’s best.

Hayden’s quickest time was .459 of a second faster than Beaubier’s best from last year’s Dunlop test at COTA, and .846 of a second faster than Hayden’s pole time at last year’s race here. The top men all did their times on Wednesday afternoon using the latest generation of Dunlop qualifying tires.

“That felt good that last session,” Hayden said. “Not just the qualifier, but with the softer race tire I did a bunch of 2:09s there so I was really excited about that. I was actually going to try to keep trying to go and see how many low 9s I could do, but the boys wanted me to come in and try the qualifiers. That’s always fun, the qualifiers, having so much grip and going for it one lap. Overall, I’m really happy. We got through a lot of stuff and being fast from the get-go helps a lot. We kinda hit a little bit of a wall yesterday afternoon and this morning we got stuck at a lap time and then this afternoon we started making steps again. We lost a session due to weather and another with an accident, but we leave here with a lot of information. We need to improve in some areas and we still have a long ways to go, but I’m ready to get this season going.”

Monster Energy/Graves Yamaha’s Josh Hayes was fourth fastest, the four-time Superbike Champion lapping at a best of 2:09.696.

Quicksilver Latus Motors Kawasaki’s Bobby Fong was the fastest of the Superstock 1000 riders and was up amongst the Superbikes on his ZX-10R. Fong dropped down to a best of 2:09.745 in the final session on a bike that has yet to be modified to the new Superstock specs. Fong won both Superstock 1000 races at COTA a year ago.

Sixth fastest was Millennium Technologies/Lucas Oil/KWR’s Kyle Wyman, the team owner/racer lapping at 2:10.521 to best Wheels In Motion/Western Services/Meen Yamaha’s Josh Herrin. Yamalube/Westby Racing’s Mathew Scholtz, Broaster Chicken Honda’s Jake Gagne and Fly Racing/Motul/ADR Motorsports’ Cameron Petersen rounded out the top 10 from today’s sessions.

Garrett Gerloff was again the fastest of the Supersport racers, the Monster Energy/Yamalube/Y.E.S./Graves Yamaha rider stepping up big on day two to slice 1.4 seconds off his best from yesterday. Gerloff lapped at 2:11.728, which was .271 of a second under his pole position time from last year’s Supersport race at COTA.

That put him .658 of a second ahead of M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s Valentin Debise, the Frenchman’s best also coming in the last of four 50-minute sessions today. Debise’s best was a hair quicker than Gerloff’s Yamaha teammate JD Beach, the 2015 MotoAmerica Supersport Champion ending up third quickest after the two-day test.

Rickdiculous Racing’s Daytona Anderson jumped up to fourth fastest, a tad over half a second faster than yesterday’s fourth-placed rider Brandon Paasch on the second M4 ECSTAR Suzuki. Paasch slipped down a spot to fifth.

“It was a good day,” Gerloff said. “We figured out some things with this new bike. Even though there are some things that are similar to last year, it is a new bike and we have to find different settings for the tracks we go to. The tracks we have been testing on are a lot more flowing and fast and not a lot of hard braking compared to this track where it doesn’t flow very well and there’s a lot of hard braking. They demand two different setups and we struggled a bit with that yesterday. Today, with the better track conditions and everything, we were able to figure out some things that we couldn’t yesterday with the wind. Everything is feeling good and ready for the race in three weeks.”

Day Two Lap Times

Supersport

1. Garrett Gerloff (Yamaha) 2:11.728

2. Valentin Debise (Suzuki) 2:12.386

3. JD Beach (Yamaha) 2:12.402

4. Daytona Anderson (Yamaha) 2:15.273

5. Brandon Paasch (Suzuki) 2:15.848

6. Nick McFadden (Suzuki) 2:16.153

7. Lucas Silva (Yamaha) 2:17.183

8. Brandon Cleland (Suzuki) 2:17.872

9. JC Camacho (Yamaha) 2:18.961

10. Caroline Olsen (Yamaha) 2:19.227

Superbike

1. Roger Hayden (Suzuki) 2:08.305

2. Toni Elias (Suzuki) 2:08.432

3. Cameron Beaubier (Yamaha) 2:08.827

4. Josh Hayes (Yamaha) 2:09.696

5. Bobby Fong (Kawasaki) 2:09.745

6. Kyle Wyman (Yamaha) 2:10.521

7. Josh Herrin (Yamaha) 2:10.627

8. Mathew Scholtz (Yamaha) 2:10.977

9. Jake Gagne (Honda) 2:11.122

10. Cameron Petersen (Kawasaki) 2:11.506