Former MotoAmerica Superbike Champion Toni Elias led the way during a one-day MotoAmerica Dunlop tire test Tuesday at Barber Motorsports Park. Riding his works Yoshimura Suzuki GSX-R1000 Superbike with a Dunlop test tire on the rear and a current-spec Dunlop race tire on the front, the Spaniard lapped the 2.3-mile, 16-turn road course in 1:24.921, which is faster than any lap he turned en route to taking victories in both MotoAmerica Superbike races this past weekend.
“It was really interesting this morning testing for Dunlop,” Elias told Roadracing World. “We test seven or eight tires. No one is bad in my opinion. No one is better than what we use now. We give a lot of information. Every single tire had something better than the actual tire but also something worse. The good things of every tire if they put it together in one it will be better than [the current] one. So that’s a good thing and that’s why we did this job this morning.
“In the afternoon I started to test other things, things we want to test and to try – geometries and positions and things. And I’m happy.”
Newly-crowned MotoAmerica Superbike Champion Cameron Beaubier was second-fastest during the test with a 1:25.168 he did on his Monster Energy/Yamalube Yamaha YZF-R1 Superbike. Beaubier only tested Dunlop tires in the two-and-a-half-hour morning session and skipped the two-hour-and-fifty-minute afternoon session.
Other Superbike testers included: Beaubier’s teammate Garrett Gerloff (1:25.587), Yamalube/Westby Racing’s Mathew Scholtz (1:25.630), M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s Jake Lewis (1:26.599), Valentin Debise (1:26.739) riding Lewis’ GSX-R1000, Josh Hayes (1:27.356) riding a Yamalube/Westby Racing Yamaha Superbike, and Dunlop test rider Taylor Knapp (1:28.658) on a Superstock-spec Suzuki GSX-R1000.
Debise rode Lewis’ Superbike at the team’s request to provide additional feedback on its setup and development.
Dunlop brought three different front tires and eight different rear tires for Superbike riders to evaluate.
Those same three front slicks, along with four new rear slicks, were also tested by Supersport riders Tuesday at Barber Motorsports Park. RiCKdiculous Racing Yamaha’s Hayden Gillim left with the fastest lap time, a 1:27.797, which essentially equaled his best race lap during the weekend. But Gillim also left the track with a beaten and bruised body after suffering a highside crash during the morning session, which was shared by Superbike and Supersport riders.
Other Supersport testers included: M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s Debise (1:28.403), M4 medAge Suzuki’s Nick McFadden (1:28.985), JD Beach (1:29.088) riding a RiCKdiculous Racing Yamaha YZF-R6, and Sean Kelly (1:30.189). Kelly, who had never ridden at Barber Motorsports Park before, flew in straight from his final Red Bull MotoGP Rookies Cup race at Motorland Aragon in Spain to ride a M4 Suzuki GSX-R600 at the test.
Dunlop brought the same three front slicks and four, new rear slicks to test on Twins Cup machines, but only newly-crowned Twins Cup Champion Chris Parrish was on hand to try out those tires for Dunlop. Parrish’s best lap on his Ghetto Customs Suzuki SV650 Tuesday was a 1:34.775, which was faster than Parrish went (1:35.332) during the Twins Cup race this past Saturday at Barber Motorsports Park, but was not as fast as Twins Cup race winner Rob McLendon III went (1:34.292).
One of Dunlop’s biggest priorities at this test was to work on new slicks to replace the Sportmax Q3’s in the Junior Cup class and several riders stuck around to share the work load. After over two hours of riding on track, Cory Ventura finished with the quickest lap time, a 1:38.091, on his MP13 Racing Yamaha YZF-R3. Not only was Ventura’s time the fastest it was 0.9 second than his best lap during the race weekend, a 1:38.999.
Other Junior Cup testers included: Dunlop test rider Knapp (1:38.957) on a Quarterley Racing/On Track Development Kawasaki Ninja 400, Gauge Rees (1:39.978) on a RiCKdiculous Racing Yamaha YZF-R3, Sean Ungvarsky (1:40.551) on his KTM Orange Brigade/Ghilliman Racing RC 390 R, Jamie Astudillo (1:42.038), who rode her Quarterley Racing/On Track Development Kawasaki Ninja 400 with an injured left foot and ankle, and Astudillo’s Team Co-owner Dale Quarterley (1:42.198), who rode one of his Kawasaki Ninja 400s.
More, from a press release issued by MotoAmerica:
Elias Quickest In Dunlop Test at Barber Motorsports Park
New Tires To Test Two Days After Season Finale
BIRMINGHAM, AL (September 25, 2018) – There was no rest for the weary in the MotoAmerica paddock as two days after the series finale at Barber Motorsports Park many of the top racers were back to work for the one-day Dunlop Tire test on Tuesday.
Yoshimura Suzuki’s Toni Elias ripped the number one from his Suzuki after losing the 2018 title to Cameron Beaubier and then went out and led the way in the Dunlop tire test on Tuesday at Barber Motorsports Park.|Photo by Brian J. Nelson
In all there were 18 riders taking part in two sessions – Superbike/Supersport sessions (an hour and a half in the morning and two hours and 50 minutes in the afternoon); Junior Cup/Twins Cup sessions (hour and 20 minutes in the morning and an hour in the afternoon) – on a mostly sunny Tuesday.
The test, hosted by Dunlop, was to evaluate the newest Superbike/Supersport slicks while also giving the Junior Cup riders an opportunity to run slicks for the first time. The Liqui Moly Junior Cup class will use the non-treaded tires for the first time in 2019.
“For Superbike we had seven different variations of the tire,” Dunlop’s Tony Romo said. “That would be construction or different compounds or a different formulation of the same compound. Just trying to get the drop off that the riders have commented on that happens after about lap five or seven… we’re trying to extend that. And we’re trying to make it less severe. We have a couple of formulations of the same compound and then we have a few construction changes as well. The sizes have all stayed the same for Superbike and we’re trying to get ahead of it because they weren’t happy this year when we came up with a new size mid-season. Some teams didn’t have the resources to get their setup mid-season and they struggled. We want to come out next season with what we need and avoid a mid-season change.
“The other big thing we have here is the slicks for the Junior Cup bikes and that was a big thing for us. That came at the request of MotoAmerica and Wayne Rainey. Wayne really wanted to see some slicks and we got right in and started developing those early and this is the first time we’ve had a chance to put them on after a race weekend. Back to back they are worth about a second, second a half faster than our Q3 Plus so things are looking good there.”
Among the Superbike testers was newly crowned three-time MotoAmerica Superbike Champion Cameron Beaubier, the Californian having finished second to Yoshimura Suzuki’s Toni Elias in Sunday’s season finale. Beaubier ended up second on the day to the Spaniard with his time of 1:25.168.
Elias lapped at a best of 1:24.921 late in the afternoon session, which was better than his best lap from the two races on the weekend.
“We left the bike exactly the same as it rolled off the track on Sunday,” Beaubier said after stopping his test at the lunch break. “We just wanted to run through some tires that Dunlop had for us. There were a couple of variations that we tried this off-season at Thunderhill (Raceway), which I was excited to try but they didn’t really work here at this track. We tried a couple of variations of the hardest option we had in the allotment this weekend, a couple of variations of that, and I actually liked a couple of them. I ended up going my fastest, I did a 25.1 on the harder option tire, and we weren’t even close to that on the older harder option tire here this weekend. It was a good step in the right direction. We kept it short and they look like they (Dunlop) are going in the right direction. We didn’t try any softer options and I don’t know if anyone else did. All in all, it was good.”
As for Elias, he was a workhorse on the day, completing close to 85 laps.
“We did this morning only for Dunlop,” Elias said. “We test many things and in, my opinion, nothing is better than what we have this weekend for the race, but we test seven or eight tires. In all of this, there were little things that were very positive to maybe introduce to the new tire so that would make a faster tire. It’s been good for the information, but when I test tires I be very careful. Start two seconds, 1.5 seconds, one second at the end if everything is clear and good push a little bit more, but not at the limit. Enough to give information and I hope to be productive to help them build the next years tires.”
The tire test also gave many riders the chance to try other bikes: Four-time Superbike Champion Josh Hayes rode the Yamalube/Westby Racing Yamaha; JD Beach was aboard Jason Aguilar’s Rickdiculous Yamaha R6 for the test; and Valentin Debise spun some laps on Jake Lewis’ M4 ECSTAR Suzuki.
Junior Cup/Twins Cup
1.Chris Parrish (Yamaha) 1:34.775
2.Cory Ventura (Yamaha) 1:38.091
3.Taylor Knapp (Kawasaki) 1:38.957
4.Gauge Rees (Yamaha) 1:39.978
5.Sean Ungvarsky (KTM) 1:40.551
Superbike
1.Toni Elias (Suzuki) 1:24.921
2.Cameron Beaubier (Yamaha) 1:25.168
3.Garrett Gerloff (Yamaha) 1:25.587
4.Mathew Scholtz (Yamaha) 1:25.630
5.Jake Lewis (Suzuki) 1:26.599
Supersport
1.Hayden Gillim (Yamaha) 1:27.797
2.Valentin Debise (Suzuki) 1:28.403
3.Nick McFadden (Suzuki) 1:28.985
4.JD Beach (Yamaha) 1:29.088
5.Sean Kelly (Suzuki) 1:30.189