Fox Racing Shocks showed up at Daytona with a large support truck usually used for snowmobile events and a new technican in the form of Jun Suganuma, who formerly worked in product development for Kayaba and was a suspension specialist for Team Kawasaki during the 2000 season.

Fox was an early leader in developing and selling high-performance aftermarket shocks for sportbikes, but in recent years has concentrated on off-road, mountain bike and snowmobile shocks, letting its sportbike market share drop as Penske and Ohlins made big gains.

We caught up with Suganuma in the Daytona paddock and asked him about the company’s road racing plans.

“Because of our success in other markets like mountain biking and snowmobiling, we want to bring motorcycle racing up to the same level,” said Suganuma. “This year’s efforts will be concentrated at AMA Nationals with a support vehicle at every event and a vehicle at non-AMA-conflicting Formula USA events. We have a whole slate of new products being developed right now. Our sponsored teams like Arclight Suzuki in Formula USA and Ricci Motorsports in AMA Supersport will be testing the new products this year that will be available to the public in 2002.”

The support vehicle Suganuma brought to Daytona was actually a Snowcross support vehicle complete with hoists in its work bay for the sleds, an area for vending Fox merchandise, and a plush rider area complete with leather sofas and every electronic media device available.