During AMA team testing Saturday at Miller Motorsports Park (MMP), riders complimented the fast, new racetrack but also said the racing surface was dirty. Eager to appease the AMA race teams and riders, MMP staff stayed at the facility until 1:30 a.m. local time pressure washing the track surface with water trucks and street sweepers. The plan backfired, however, as many riders felt the track was dirtier Sunday than Saturday, leading to an early end to the test for some riders and teams. “It wasn’t really good,” Kawasaki’s Roger Hayden said of the MMP racing surface. “I feel really bad for Dan (Solomon, MMP Director of Motorcycle Operations) and the guys here at the track because they are really busting their butts to make the track perfect for us. They stayed up all night washing the track. They thought they were doing something good, but it just wasn’t good. I couldn’t even put my knee down. It was just really slick. It was almost like riding in rain on intermediates kind of feeling.” “You see this parking lot here? That’s exactly what the track’s like,” said Yamaha/Graves Yamaha rider Jamie Hacking, pointing to the dirty paddock parking area. “The one really tight right-hand corner on the infield that brings you back this way, yesterday it was good. Now, it’s so muddy. It looks like a damn motocross track.” Due to the poor track conditions and an upcoming test scheduled at MMP in May, the Yamaha/Graves Yamaha team decided to stop testing at lunch time. “The track surface, right now, is pretty dirty,” said Yamaha Team Manager Tom Halverson, when asked why his team was leaving early. “They made a great effort last night to clean some of the dirt off the track, (but) that actually made it worse. It put some dirt on the bike line that wasn’t there yesterday. So it’s a little bit hard for the guys to go out there and do lap times that we would need to do any kind of set up on the bike and make any improvements. We’ve got to load the truck up at the end of this week to go to two races, at Barber and Cal Speedway, so we’re probably going to be safe, pack it in and call it a day.” “The track’s dirty, (but) it’s not even worth talking about,” said Yoshimura Suzuki’s Mat Mladin, the six-time and defending AMA Superbike Champion. “The bottom line is this is a new racetrack and it needs time, it needs work, it needs people to ride and drive (on it) and it will become better. That’s all it is. It needs time, and it needs people going around the racetrack, more than the few that are here.” Mladin was one of the few riders who continued riding after the lunch break, during which MMP staff circulated the 3.06-mile, 15-turn road course with safety vehicles and race-prepared Ford Mustangs from their in-house driving school in an attempt to further clean off the racing line. Mladin and Kawasaki’s Tommy Hayden, who also rode after the lunch break, both reported the extra clean-up efforts did not improve the track. Mladin stopped riding after a handful of laps, but Tommy Hayden did several stints on his ZX-10R Superbike Sunday afternoon. Some of the men who chose to continue riding after the lunch break Sunday did so in order to get familiar with a modified version of the final corner. In an attempt to prevent riders from crashing into an Airfence Bike-protected Armco barrier at the exit of the corner, orange traffic cones were placed at the apex of the final corner to slow mid-corner speed, force riders to finish the corner earlier and, in theory, pass the wall area more straight up and down and more in control. Riders had mixed reviews about the modification, but AMA Pro Racing Superbike Series Manager Ron Barrick said the May test at MMP would start with the last-corner modification in place. Sunday Morning Test Times (as provided by AMA Pro Racing timing & scoring): 1. Jake Zemke (Hon CBR1000RR), 1:57.44 Superbike* 2. Tommy Hayden (Kaw ZX-10R), 2:00.240 Superbike 3. Roger Hayden (Kaw ZX-6RR), 2:00.592 Supersport 4. Roger Hayden (Kaw ZX-10R), 2:00.668 Superbike 5. Jason DiSalvo (Yam YZF-R1 LE), 2:02.109 Superstock 6. Cory West (Suz GSX-R1000), 2:02.292 Superstock 7. Ben Attard (Kaw ZX-6RR), 2:04.925 Supersport 8. Marty Craggill (Suz GSX-R1000), 2:06.145 Superstock 9. Eric Bostrom (Yam YZF-R6), 2:07.289 Formula Xtreme 10. Damon Buckmaster (Kaw ZX-6RR), 2:08.934 Supersport 11. C.R. Gittere (Suz GSX-R1000), 2:14.899 Superstock 12. Jamie Hacking (Yam YZF-R6), 2:16.454 Supersport Sunday Afternoon Test Times (as provided by AMA Pro Racing timing & scoring): 1. Tommy Hayden (Kaw ZX-10R), 1:56.534 Superbike 2. Miguel Duhamel (Hon CBR1000RR), 1:57.52 Superbike* 3. Larry Pegram (Hon CBR1000RR), 1:59.507 Superstock 4. Mat Mladin (Suz GSX-R1000), 1:59.747 Superbike 5. Cory West (Suz GSX-R1000), 2:00.263 Superstock 6. Ryan Elleby (Hon CBR600RR), 2:04.737 Supersport 7. C.R. Gittere (Suz GSX-R1000), 2:06.259 Superstock * Times provided by Crew Chief due to bike not having electronic scoring transponder.