Copyright 2002, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

By David Swarts

HMC Ducati’s Doug Chandler posted the fastest time of the three-day AMA test at Laguna Seca Thursday with a 1:26.1 on his Ducati 998RS Superbike. With Honda not attending the final day of the event, Chandler’s lap time beats the previous best lap of 1:26.22 turned by Nicky Hayden. According to Chandler’s crew, they haven’t started to look for their fastest lap yet.

Kawasaki’s Eric Bostrom went into Thursday’s lunch break with a smile on his face and the second-fastest lap of the day, a 1:26.6. Team Blimpie Yoshimura Suzuki’s Aaron Yates managed a 1:26.9 while testing different shocks and exhaust pipes. Even though he says his injured left arm is hurting him as badly today as yesterday, Mat Mladin rode all morning in an attempt to get some testing done. Mladin’s fastest lap was a 1:27.0, his fastest lap of the test.

Yamaha’s Anthony Gobert was fifth-fastest among the Superbike riders with a 1:27.4 on his YZF-R7 even though he spent the majority of the morning on his Supersport bike. Gobert also crashed his Superbike Thursday morning in exactly the same spot as he crashed it on Wednesday in turn two. Once again, Gobert escaped injury and his bike suffered minimal damage in the lowside fall. Gobert blamed his crash on the same problem–pushing too hard too soon after coming out of the pits. Both of Gobert’s crashes were on the second lap. “You would think I would’ve learned by now,” joked Gobert.

Second in the AMA Superbike point standings, Jamie Hacking rounded out the Superbike lap times with a 1:28.0 despite spending little time on his Superbike during the test. Not only is Hacking working with a new Crew Chief in Tom Houseworth, Hacking also has a new chassis builder in Dennis McLaughlin. McLaughlin previously worked with the Gemini race team as a chassis builder on the Harley-Davidson VR1000 program.

Kawasaki’s Tommy Hayden continued to set the pace for Supersport riders at the test by posting the fastest lap time Thursday morning. Hayden turned a 1:29.9 on his ZX-6R with Dunlop DOT-labeled race tires. Gobert was the second-fastest 600cc Supersport rider with a 1:30.2 on his Yamaha YZF-R6. Damon Buckmaster’s best time on his Yamaha YZF-R6 was a 1:30.4, and he said he was held back by a front-end chatter. Young Tony Meiring continued to lower his lap times, lapping at a best of 1:31.00 before stopping for lunch Thursday. Meiring hopes to get into the 1:30s before he runs out of tires.

Graves Motorsports Yamaha’s Buckmaster, the sole Formula Xtreme rider left at Laguna Seca, turned a 1:28.3 on his YZF-R1-engined Yamaha R7.

After a third day of near-perfect weather, the test will conclude Thursday at 4:30 p.m. Pacific Time.