Copyright 2002, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

By Beth Wyse

Team Yoshimura Blimpie Suzuki is hosting three days of AMA team testing at Road Atlanta this week in preparation for the double-header Superbike race scheduled for the track May 16-19. Tuesday was the first day of the test.

Track conditions were good, with the exception of water seeping up through the track off the line in turn five, and ambient temperature was what one rider called “f–king hot”. According to Kevin Schwantz, who spent some time on the course, the track surface seemed slick.

Besides Yoshimura Suzuki, participating teams splitting the hefty bill for the practice session included the factory Superbike efforts fielded by Honda, Yamaha and Kawasaki as well as the HMC Ducati Superbike team. The sole non-Superbike team present is Valvoline EMGO Suzuki.

Most riders were concentrating on bike set-up, both for Road Atlanta and the upcoming race at Sears Point.

Honda’s Kurtis Roberts and Valvoline’s Josh Hayes were both absent due to injuries they sustained in crashes at Fontana the weekend of April 5-7. Kawasaki’s sole Superbike rider, Eric Bostrom, was also missing, having already left for next weekend’s World Superbike race at Sugo, Japan.

Bikes did not get on-track until after 10:00 a.m. Tuesday, giving riders less than two hours of track time before the lunch break. The entire day was run without any major incidents.

Team Honda brought two RC51s for Miguel Duhamel to test this week. “Our one bike is going really well,” explained Duhamel. “I’m already going faster than I did last year, I think, so I feel really good and now we’re going to try the other one and see if there’s something to that one. Different triple clamps, different suspensions, front and rear, different links that hold the shock in the back. We’re going to throw a lot of things at it and hopefully the weather will cooperate and we’ll be able to get the maximum data out of our bikes.”

Duhamel and teammate Nicky Hayden were both running mid-1:25 lap times by the afternoon sessions, with Hayden turning a fast lap of 1:23.8 late in the day; pole time last year was 1:22.7.

Aaron Yates, a local favorite at Road Atlanta, spent most of the day concentrating on his Supersport Suzuki GSX-R600. “Right now we’re just riding the 600, just trying some different options and things you don’t really have time to try on a race weekend,” said Yates. “For the Superbike, we don’t really have a lot of new stuff to test. We’re going to do some fine-tuning and try to do some laps out there.” Yates was the only crasher, falling in turn 10, entering the chicane, early in the morning; he was uninjured.

Mat Mladin seemed unhindered by the elbow he injured at Daytona, spending as much time on track on his Superbike as the other riders.

Kawasaki’s Tony Meiring, on the #56 Kawasaki ZX-6R, is riding at Road Atlanta for only the second time in his career. His focus is becoming more familiar with the track itself. His teammate, Tommy Hayden, is looking for set-up data.

HMC Ducati’s new rider Doug Chandler was working on getting his bike set-up for the Road Atlanta round, but he was also looking forward to a chance to get some quality time working with his new team. “It’s a double-header and we’re only going to have Friday (for practice) and no telling what the weather’s going to be like, so it’s good to get here and kind of get things sorted out, that way we know when we come here we’ve got something we could race on if we need to,” said Chandler.

Anthony Gobert rode his Supersport YZF-R6 in the morning and his Superbike in the afternoon. Damon Buckmaster didn’t get on the track Tuesday.

Kipp rode his Supersport GSX-R600 for most of the day, trying three sets of forks and various Michelin tires, then went out on his Formula Xtreme GSX-R1000 for 14 shake-down laps. Kipp will spend more time on both bikes tomorrow, with a large selection of Michelin slicks to try on the Formula Xtreme bike, as well as several new rear shocks. Kipp turned a total of 87 laps during the day, 73 on his 600.

Chris Ulrich rode a GSX-R750 Superstock bike all day, turning 49 laps while chasing set-up and testing various brake pad compounds.

Riders present at the test include:

Honda
Miguel Duhamel
Nicky Hayden

Kawasaki
Tommy Hayden
Tony Meiring

Yamaha
Anthony Gobert
Damon Buckmaster

Valvoline EMGO Suzuki
Tom Kipp
Chris Ulrich

Yoshimura Blimpie Suzuki
Mat Mladin
Aaron Yates
Jamie Hacking