Bobby Fong bounced back from being fired by the Quicksilver/Lexin/Hudson Motorcycles team at Sonoma by running at an unofficial lap-record pace in his first day of testing with his new team, on his first day riding at High Plains Raceway.
The track record was set at 1:43.972 by Jake Gagne during a 2016 MRA weekend at High Plains Raceway, and Fong said he turned a 1:43.96 during the test. “It was close,” Fong said when reached by Roadracing World. “It was within a 10th.
“Today was a good first day,” Fong continued. “I really enjoyed riding the Honda, and the crew and I gelled immediately. It was a pleasure working with such a knowledgeable group of guys. They’ve done some good work on this Honda to make it a really good bike.
“I believe we can do good things with it. First day at this track, first time on this bike, and I feel like we can go to Pittsburgh with confidence and do good. I want to thank Danny Walker, all the Road Race Factory guys, Honda, and the Broaster Chicken guys for giving me this opportunity.”
Team owner Danny Walker told Roadracing World, “I know it’s just testing, but it’s hard not to come out of this day being pretty positive. Cam (Petersen) showed at Sonoma that our bike has taken a pretty big step and can be competitive. And Bobby is pretty motivated to get on something he can be competitive on. For Bobby’s first real experience dealing with this level of electronics, a Marelli system, he had a good feel for it right away.
“We’re still unsure if Cam is going to be fit for Pittsburgh, but for sure he should be good for New Jersey,” Walker continued. “Bobby rode the same bike Cam rode at Sonoma, and we should be competitive at Pittsburgh. Scott (Jensen) is trying to build an all new, identical bike for Cam, so when Cam comes back, we’ll have both guys on exactly the same-spec motorcycles.”