Copyright 2002, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

By Bruce Wilkins

Cooler than normal temperatures with an afternoon of overcast skies allowed for some hot testing today at Virginia International Raceway.

Numerous AMA Superbike teams finished up the second day of tests with faster times than they achieved last season. The teams will converge on the southern Virginia road course on August 9-11 for the doubleheader season finale of the AMA Superbike season.

Miguel Duhamel, who won back-to-back Superbike races at Road America two weekends ago, utilized most of the Tuesday session to set up his Supersport CBR600F4i.

“It’s the first time back on the 600 and we’re right there within two-tenths of the fastest laps done today by the 600 regulars,” said Duhamel, who recorded a 1:28.5 lap as his fastest of the day. “We’re matching our fastest laps in our race here last year and I always run faster in a race than like this, so we’re pretty happy about that. Looks good for August.”

Duhamel’s Superbike times in the morning were off from teammate Nicky Hayden’s best times. “That’s really not too bad, but tomorrow we’re going to concentrate on the Superbike full time,” he pointed out. Duhamel’s fastest Superbike lap today was 1:27.0, while he recorded lap times in the 1:26 range yesterday. “We’re real confident that we’ll get back in the 26s tomorrow.”

Duhamel credited his hot streak with reuniting with crew chief Al Ludington. “I’m really looking forward to VIR…now that I’ve got Al back, we’ve got the right setup, the guys are working really great, I see myself in the mixture in every race. The rest of the season, it will be a big disappointment in each race if we’re not in the top three.”

Kawasaki racer Eric Bostrom has mixed feelings about the VIR testing session so far. “The good thing is that our times are better than last year, but the downside is that I’m not totally happy with the suspension yet,” Bostrom said. “We’ll work on that the rest of the day.” Bostrom recorded numerous laps in the low 1:25 range on Tuesday.

Kawasaki team manager Michael Preston described the sessions so far as averaging about a second faster than his racers did last year. “Nobody’s crashed, we’re getting a lot of work done, and so far, so good,” he said. “We’re real lucky in that we thought it was going to be real hot this week, but so far it hasn’t been that hot. Hot weather like we had here last year is a discomfort for the riders and it’s definitely a lot more work to get the bikes ready. So we like the way the weather was today.”

Preston described the youngest member of his team, Tony Meiring, as a quick learner and taking to VIR real well. “Tony has come along really good and is actually a little ahead of our schedule,” Preston said. “The last few rounds he has had some really good performances and we’re just ecstatic that he’s getting in there and riding with the front runners.

“Tony’s getting better every week that he rides a bike and he’s doing real well here today,” Preston added. “He actually rode here last year as a privateer, so he’s come around really good.” Meiring lost a chain late in the afternoon under the bridge and his bike had to be hauled back to the pits.

The testing session marks the first such test of the year for the Austin Bleu Bayou Ducati team and racer Pascal Picotte. “It’s been good for us because this time has allowed us to go through a lot of stuff, things we couldn’t go too far with on race weekends,” Picotte explained. “At the track in the previous races, we could make a little improvement here or there, but here like this we can go from one extreme to another and figure things out that I really like…and the geometry and those types of things. We’re definitely learning a lot with this test and we’ll carry that over for us the rest of the season.” Picotte recorded laps in the 1:27 range, about a half-second off the leaders, but said he plans to get those times down to the mid-26s by tomorrow.

Points leader Nicky Hayden and winner of the first AMA Superbike race last season at VIR was pleased so far as well. “This test has been really good,” Hayden said. “I’ve gone faster than I qualified last year. I’m having a little problem with my foot. I was practicing the other day and twisted my ankle up pretty bad flat-tracking. I caught my right foot in a hole. It hasn’t slowed me down, but it hurts a lot. It’ll be all right…that’s just part of racing. Hasn’t been that much fun today because of the pain.”

Despite the injury, Hayden recorded consistent laps in the high 1:25s with his fastest lap a 1:25.5, according to Hayden. “I really like this track more each time I come here,” he said. “It’s held up really, really well for the amount of racing on it and it’s a just a cool place to race.”

Teams participating in the tests include Blimpie Yoshimura Suzuki with Mat Mladin, Aaron Yates and Jamie Hacking; Arclight Suzuki with Lee Acree and Craig Connell; Kawasaki with Tony Meiring, Eric Bostrom and Tommy Hayden; American Honda with Nicky Hayden, Miguel Duhamel and Jake Zemke; Austin Bleu Bayou with Pascal Picotte; and Yamaha with Damon Buckmaster.

NASCAR racer Ken Schrader spectated briefly during the test, checking out Mat Mladin’s racebike.