Copyright 2002, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.
By David Swarts
American Honda’s Nicky Hayden was again the fastest rider Wednesday morning during AMA team testing at Mazda Raceway at Laguna Seca in Monterey, California. Yamaha’s Anthony Gobert and Kawasaki’s Tommy Hayden shared the fastest lap time among the 600cc Supersport riders present, while Bruce Transportation Group Honda’s Jake Zemke remained the fastest Formula Xtreme racer at the test.
Even though the weather was near perfect, with a cloudless sky and temperatures in the 70s, few riders bettered their times from day one of the test. Most of the AMA racers on hand worked to improve their set-ups or continued to evaluate parts rather than shooting for single fast lap times.
Nicky Hayden’s 1:27.0 was slower than his best of 1:26.5 from Tuesday but was still good enough to lead all times Wednesday morning. With the majority within one second of Wednesday’s best, Nicky Hayden’s time was closely followed by Kurtis Roberts, Miguel Duhamel, Mat Mladin, Aaron Yates, Doug Chandler. The one exception was Kawasaki’s Eric Bostrom, who admitted that he was struggling.
Crashing just before lunch time Wednesday, Bostrom became the first rider to fall down during the test. Resulting in only light damage to his ZX-7RR and none to his body, Bostrom’s crash was a true close call.
“I lifted the rear end a little too much going in there (turn six) and couldn’t get the thing settled before going into the corner. Then I couldn’t hold my line and there’s not a lot of (run-off) room in that corner. I ended up hitting the wall, glancing off it, and falling down. I’m alright.”
Bostrom rode the bike back into the pits with so little damage that his teammate Tommy Hayden didn’t even know that Bostrom had crashed.
Honda, Erion Honda and Bruce Transportation Group Honda will leave Laguna Seca Wednesday evening, leaving Yamaha, Grave Motorsports Yamaha, Kawasaki, HMC Ducati and Team Blimpie Yoshmiura Suzuki to finish on Thursday.
Wednesday morning unofficial lap times:
1. Nicky Hayden, Honda RC51, 1:27.0
2. Aaron Yates, Suzuki GSX-R750, 1:27.1
3. Kurtis Roberts, Honda RC51, 1:27.2
4. Miguel Duhamel, Honda RC51, 1:27.2
5. Doug Chandler, Ducati 998RS, 1:27.54
6. Mat Mladin, Suzuki GSX-R750, 1:27.7
7. Eric Bostrom, Kawasaki ZX-7RR, 1:28.1
8. Jake Zemke, Honda CBR954RR, 1:28.4
9. Roger Lee Hayden, Honda CBR954RR, 1:28.9
10. Anthony Gobert, Yamaha YZF-R6, 1:29.6
11. Tommy Hayden, Kawasaki ZX-6R, 1:29.6
12. Jamie Hacking, Suzuki GSX-R600, 1:30.0
13. Mike Hale, Honda CBR600F4I, 1:30.6
14. Damon Buckmaster, Yamaha YZF-R6, 1:30.7
15. Jake Zemke, Honda CBR600F4I, 1:31.4
16. Alex Gobert, Honda CBR600F4I, 1:31.7
17. Tony Meiring, Kawasaki ZX-6R, 1:32.1