Just two days after the end of the 2018 MotoAmerica AMA/FIM North American Road Racing Championship, the 2019 MotoAmerica season is starting today with an official Dunlop tire test at Barber Motorsports Park.

And while this test is not an equivalent to the test MotoGP holds each year after its season finale at Valencia, where all the racers ride with their new teams and bikes, today’s test has some interesting things going on.

The primary purpose of the test is for the riders and teams to work together with Dunlop, the official control tire supplier of the MotoAmerica series, on the development of tires for the 2019 season.

According to Development Manager for Dunlop Motorcycle Tires in North America Mick Jackson, “Working on the new tires for the Junior Cup class is our primary purpose because the class is switching to slick tires in 2019. So we have a variety of slick prototypes to try and give us a springboard into the winter testing. That class will be on slicks from the first race next year.”

Jackson said the Junior Cup prototype slicks are not based on any existing Dunlop tires but were built using knowledge from Dunlop’s Moto3 slicks as well as its Sportmax Q3 line of streetbike tires.

“We also have new sizes for the other classes with compound and construction developments,” added Jackson. “We are trying to avoid switching tire sizes during the season next year because as we learned this year it can cause problems for the teams in adapting their chassis setups and traction control settings. So the teams have asked us to avoid doing that, but we will retain the option to change compounds and construction during the season.”

Many of the MotoAmerica riders are testing the tires on the same motorcycles they raced with this past weekend, riders like: Ghetto Customs Suzuki’s Chris Parrish, KTM Orange Brigade/Ghilliman Racing KTM’s Sean Ungvarsky, M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s Valentin Debise and Jake Lewis, M4 medAge Suzuki’s Nick McFadden, Monster Energy/Yamalube/Yamaha’s Cameron Beaubier and Garrett Gerloff, MP13 Racing Yamaha’s Cory Ventura, Quarterley Racing/On Track Development Kawasaki’s Jamie Astudillo, RiCKdiculous Racing Yamaha’s Hayden Gillim and Gauge Rees, Yamalube/Westby Racing Yamaha’s Mathew Scholtz; Yoshimura Suzuki’s Toni Elias, and Pro racer turned Dunlop test rider Taylor Knapp on a Kawasaki Ninja 400 and a Suzuki GSX-R1000.

Also testing tires Tuesday is JD Beach on a RiCKdiculous Racing Yamaha YZF-R6, four-time AMA Pro Superbike Champion Josh Hayes on a Yamalube/Westby Racing Yamaha YZF-R1, and Red Bull MotoGP Rookies Cup racer Sean Kelly on a M4 Suzuki GSX-R600. However, it’s not immediately known if the activities of Beach, Hayes, and Kelly are indications of future plans.

We will report more information, including lap times, as it becomes available.