Elements of the Rockstar Makita Suzuki and Monster Attack Kawasaki AMA teams tested Monday, February 23 on the nine-turn, 2.5-mile Willow Springs International Raceway, in Rosamond, California. Rockstar Makita Suzuki’s Tommy Hayden and Blake Young tested the 2008-model GSX-R1000 American Superbikes that they plan to start the season with next week at Daytona International Speedway. “I rode only about 60 laps,” Young told Roadracingworld.com, “kind of shook the new bike down, shook the bugs out of it and made sure it was ready to go for Daytona.” Young said it only took a minimum amount of effort to readjust from the 2009 GSX-R1000 he tested at Auto Club Speedway earlier this month to the older version of the bike. The adjustment was made easier for him by the team’s decision to go with Öhlins rather than Showa suspension components. Young used Öhlins suspension on the Suzukis he raced in 2008, while the Rockstar Makita Suzuki team has worked with Showa for the last several seasons. “The biggest thing for me was just learning the track and trying to get up to speed,” said Young. “Everybody says Willow Springs is not that technical of a track, but it’s pretty high speed and it’s hard to get going full speed when you don’t know where the edges of the track are. But Turn Eight was a trip! It was like back to Brainerd.” Young said his best lap time was a 1:25.2, which was well off teammate Hayden’s 1:22.8, but Young said he was simply following the advice of mentor Kevin Schwantz. “He said, ‘Don’t do anything stupid. Daytona’s only a week away. Don’t go out there and try to set the lap record or anything,'” said Young. “If we were racing at Willow this year or next year or something I might have approached the test differently, but we were just trying to shake the bikes down.” Tommy Hayden could not be reached prior to post time. Six-time AMA Superbike Champion Mat Mladin did not attend the test. Monster Attack Kawasaki’s regular riders Jamie Hacking and Roger Hayden also were not at the test. Their bikes were ridden by former Red Bull AMA U.S. Rookies Cup star Leandro Mercado, according to sources at the track. Monster Attack Kawasaki Team Owner/Crew Chief Richard Stanboli was not immediately available for comment.