Two-time and defending AMA Superbike Champion Ben Spies was the fastest rider Tuesday, the first day of a two-day multi-team test at California Speedway, in Fontana, California. Spies, according to his team, turned a 1:23.3 around the 21-turn, 2.36-mile infield road course on his Rockstar Makita Yoshimura Suzuki GSX-R1000 Superbike. That time was just slower than the 1:23.117 Spies did to take pole position for the AMA Superbike race at California Speedway in April 2007, and Spies did his time Tuesday while ill. “I’ve got a horrible cold,” the young Texan told Roadracingworld.com. “I can’t breathe when I’m out there, and I can hardly sleep at night. “It went OK today. We just kind of went through the motions, tested a couple of things, nothing new and exciting.” Spies said he tried a new, dual-muffler exhaust system like the World Superbike-spec Suzukis must use, a new seat/tail section and a couple of things in his Showa forks. “Plus, it’s my first day riding again since I got my shoulder done,” Spies said, referring to surgery he had to repair a lingering injury in his right shoulder. “Everything’s working fine, but I don’t want to push it.” Second-fastest on the day with a 1:23.7 was Spies’ teammate and chief rival Mat Mladin, who tested all of the same parts, which were the same parts Rockstar Makita Yoshimura Suzuki tested at Daytona International Speedway in December. “But Daytona isn’t much of a test for a lot of things,” said Mladin, who was wearing a new helmet, Scorpion, and a new competition number, 6, at California Speedway. “Everything went pretty good. We knocked some cobwebs off of the rider. Tomorrow we will test some tires and some new bits and pieces.” Tommy Hayden, the third Rockstar Makita Yoshimura Suzuki rider, split his day between his new GSX-R600 Supersport bike and his GSX-R1000 Superbike. Third on the unofficial time sheets was Neil Hodgson, who was stacking his race-spec American Honda CBR1000RR Superbike up against the competition for the first time. Hodgson, who has tested the 2008 CBR1000RR in various stages of development four times before coming to California Speedway, said the new bike felt completely different than the 2007-spec CBR1000RR Superbike. “It’s [2008] like riding a racebike as opposed to riding a streetbike [2007],” Hodgson said. Hodgson’s teammate Miguel Duhamel reported that he is fully recovered from the devastating crash at Road Atlanta that put him out of action since last August. Corona Honda’s Matt Lynn and Jake Holden made their 2008 debuts Tuesday. The Corona Honda team got their 2008 CBR1000RRs February 1 and only had enough time to build one Superbike with a stock engine for Lynn and one mildly-race-prepped Superstock bike that still had a horn and passenger seat for Holden. Fourth-fastest Tuesday was Monster Energy Kawasaki’s Jamie Hacking, who turned a 1:24.74 on his ZX-10R late in the day, when the track temperature had cooled down. Hacking’s teammate Roger Hayden, the 2007 AMA Supersport Champion, spent most of Tuesday riding his ZX-6R and only did a few laps on his ZX-10R Superbike. Hacking and Roger Hayden were joined at the test by Team Green Kawasaki’s Akira Yanagawa, who rode a ZX-10R Superbike. Also attending the test Tuesday were: Attack Kawasaki’s Chaz Davies and Steve Rapp; Erion Honda’s Shea Fouchek, Josh Hayes (the 2007 AMA Formula Xtreme Champion) and Jake Zemke; Graves Yamaha’s Ben Bostrom and Josh Herrin; Jordan Suzuki’s Geoff May and Aaron Yates; Matsushima Suzuki’s Garrett Carter, Danny Eslick and Chris Siebenhaar; Team Roadracingworld.com Suzuki’s Chris Ulrich; and Yamaha’s Eric Bostrom and Jason DiSalvo. AMA Teams Test California Speedway Fontana, California February 5, 2007 Unofficial Lap Times (as supplied by each team): 1. Ben Spies (Suz GSX-R1000), Superbike, Dunlop, 1:23.3 2. Mat Mladin (Suz GSX-R1000), Superbike, Dunlop, 1:23.7 3. Neil Hodgson (Hon CBR1000RR), Superbike, Dunlop, 1:24.70 4. Jamie Hacking (Kaw ZX-10R), Superbike, Dunlop, 1:24.74 5. Aaron Yates (Suz GSX-R1000), Superstock, Dunlop, 1:25.0 6. Jason DiSalvo (Yam YZF-R1), Superbike, Dunlop, 1:25.01 7. Tommy Hayden (Suz GSX-R1000), Superbike, Dunlop, 1:25.1 8. Miguel Duhamel (Hon CBR1000RR), Superbike, Dunlop, 1:25.4 9. Eric Bostrom (Yam YZF-R1), Superbike, Dunlop, 1:25.6 10. Roger Hayden (Kaw ZX-10R), Superbike, Dunlop, 1:25.8 11. Steve Rapp (Kaw ZX-6R), Formula Xtreme, Pirelli, 1:25.9 12. Aaron Yates (Suz GSX-R1000), Superbike, Dunlop, 1:26.0 13. Chaz Davies (Kaw ZX-6R), Formula Xtreme, Pirelli, 1:26.1 14. Chris Ulrich (Suz GSX-R1000), Superstock, Pirelli, 1:26.5 15. Matt Lynn (Hon CBR1000RR), Superbike, Dunlop, 1:26.6 16. Geoff May (Suz GSX-R1000), Superstock, Dunlop, 1:26.7 17. Josh Hayes (Hon CBR600RR), Supersport, Dunlop, 1:26.8 18. Akira Yanagawa (Kaw ZX-10R), Superbike, Dunlop, 1:27.0 19. Jake Holden (Hon CBR1000RR), Superstock, Dunlop, 1:27.1 20. Josh Herrin (Yam YZF-R6), Supersport, Dunlop, 1:27.16 21. Jake Zemke (Hon CBR600RR), Supersport, Dunlop, 1:27.2 22. Ben Bostrom (Yam YZF-R6), Supersport, Dunlop, 1:27.27 23. Jake Zemke (Hon CBR600RR), Formula Xtreme, Dunlop, 1:27.6 24. Tommy Hayden (Suz GSX-R600), Supersport, Dunlop, 1:28.0 25. TIE, Roger Hayden (Kaw ZX-6R), Supersport, Dunlop/Danny Eslick (Suz GSX-R600), Supersport, Dunlop, 1:28.4 26. Shea Fouchek (Hon CBR600RR), Supersport, Dunlop, 1:29.2 27. Garrett Carter (Suz GSX-R600), Supersport, Dunlop, 1:29.4 28. Chris Siebenhaar (Suz GSX-R600), Supersport, Dunlop, 1:30.3 More, from a press release issued by Monster Kawasaki: Monster Energy Kawasaki Ends Day One of Testing at California Speedway FONTANA, Calif. Monster Energy Kawasaki’s Roger Hayden and Jamie Hacking completed their first day of testing at California Speedway with successful improvements made on the all-new Kawasaki ZX™-10R. Attack Kawasaki’s Steve Rapp and Chaz Davies also made progress in their development of the ZX™-6R, which they will race in the Daytona 200 next month. It Could Be Worse With the wind blowing and temperatures in the 40s when riders and crew arrived, the riders finally made it onto the track about 10:30 a.m. Even with the conditions as they were, it was a much better forecast than last year when rain caused testing to be put on hold for two days. Anticipating Daytona After last year ‘s incredible win by Attack Kawasaki’s Steve Rapp in the Daytona 200, the team is looking to turn out a repeat performance. Testing today and over the next month will help get the team closer to pulling out another win. “I just keep thinking about last year and how I went there with all these new elements like a new bike and new tires,” said Rapp. “I didn’t have the highest expectations with those circumstances. I just felt like ‘let’s see how this goes.’ Now I’m thinking that I don’t have a hurt shoulder, I know the bikes and tires. We can hope for the best. But all in all, I am much more excited to go to Daytona this year than last year.” Testing the Number One Hayden showed off his number one plate on his championship-winning ZX-6R. Hayden is making sure everything is set to defend his title in the deep-fielded AMA Supersport class. “That number looks good on the bike,” said Hayden. “It’s definitely something to be proud of. Every time I look at it I think about what it means. Its going to be another tough year with that class so packed and hopefully we can try and keep it in there.” New Leathers Hacking came to Fontana with a newly designed set of leathers. With gold accents and big “hacker dog” on the back, he will be hard to miss out on the track. Chaz Davies Improves on the ZX-6R During the December Pirelli tire test in Daytona, Davies turned out impressive times in only his first trip out on the ZX-6R. After some time on the bike over the past two months, he has continued to show substantial improvements during the first day of testing at California Speedway. “My first impressions at Daytona were good,” said Davies. “Since then, we have been trying to get a little quicker and a little quicker. At Daytona we had a really good starting place for our settings and now have found out a lot for the future, which will be good in the long run.” One More Day With one day under their belts, the Monster Energy Kawasaki team looks forward to finishing out a successful two days of riding. After a great day one, the team is banking on a great day tomorrow. “We had a very good test today and I think we are looking really good for tomorrow,” said Team Manager Mike Preston. “Our teams are going back through the testing we did in January and everything is moving along quite well.”