Peris Completes Testing at Jennings GP, Close To Lap Record Topline Racing’s Chris Peris completed three days of testing on Yamaha YZF-R6s at Jennings GP on Friday. The team was fitting and testing a complete Aim data acquisition system and testing suspension components. On hand to assist Peris, was his Lead Mechanic and engine builder, Willie Vass of Vass Performance, Fred Jolivet to manage the new data system, and suspension tuner Max McAllister of Traxxion Dynamics. Young Gun Peris will be competing in the World Supersport Championship again in 2007 on the Biker’s Days Yamaha team, and in non-conflicting AMA events, including the Daytona 200. The weather prohibited productive testing for the first two days, with temperatures in the 40 degree range, and spotty rain. The team were in ski hats and winter coats the entire time. The track surface was sandy from the wind, and didn’t offer any grip. As a result, Peris was only able to complete 30 laps each day, lapping at 1:17.0 on the second day, on Dunlop medium compound D.O.T. tires. Although he had never been to the circuit before, Peris liked the layout. “The track flows really well, and offers a little bit of everything. It’s a good place for us to test.” Friday was the first time the sun tried to break out, and the ambient temperature got close to 60 degrees midday. According to Vass, “Since we weren’t able to get anything done for the last two days, today we were simply testing whole components. We had some different Ohlins shocks Chris’ WSS team owner sent from Europe, and two fork specs from Traxxion, including their new AK-Gas cartridges.” By the end of the day, Peris was lapping consistently in the 1:16 range, with a best time of 1:15.78, backed up by a 1:15.89, which is just less than a second off of the outright lap record set recently by Luca Scassa on the factory MV Augusta. Peris achieved his best time using Traxxion’s new supersport legal AK-Gas forks. Peris normally competes in the USA with Penske Shocks, but was helping his WSS team try some different Ohlins specs. “It impressive that Chris was so fast given the amount of time we had” stated McAllister. “We weren’t able to spend any time trying to optimize anything, we were really just letting him try big changes. As we expected, he was definitely way faster on our new AK-Gas Cartridges. He was on the gas forks when he was running in the 15s. I think it’s amazing considering we were on Dunlop mediums (3136) and the track had absolutely no heat in it. There’s no doubt in my mind if we had some soft tires and some sunlight on the track, Chris would have been able to break the lap record. The weather just wasn’t on our side to be able to get a really fast time.” When asked about his plans to compete in the Daytona 200, Peris commented “I ran in the 200 in 2005, and that was the first race my dad hooked me up with Willie and Max. We finished 5th that year with a new team and new bikes. We all work great together, and now with Fred helping us with data, I am hoping to do even better. It won’t be easy though, because I will flying in to Daytona straight from a trip around the world to race in Qatar and Australia. I’ll be ready though.”