Copyright 2003, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

By Beth Wyse

Mat Mladin was the fastest rider Monday during the first day of a three-day AMA team test at the revised Road Atlanta road course in Braselton, Georgia.

Yoshimura Suzuki is hosting the test and is sharing the track with the factory Honda, Kawasaki and Yamaha teams as well as Ducati Austin, Graves Yamaha and Team Valvoline EMGO Suzuki.

Australian rider Jamie Stauffer is present and riding for the Yoshimura Suzuki team.

Most of the riders are concentrating on bike set-up and testing various tire compounds.

Mladin was one of the first riders on track in the morning, wasting little time in getting his Suzuki GSX-R1000 up to speed. The bike had never been on the track before, but as the day went on he dropped is time to a high-1:24.

Honda’s Miguel Duhamel spent most of the day working on the set-up of his Supersport Honda CBR600RR. Duhamel said he feels his RC51 Superbike is already strong and needs less work. Duhamel’s best Superbike lap time of 1:25.8 was off Mladin’s pace, but Duhamel only rode eight laps on his RC51 Monday.

Duhamel’s teammate Ben Bostrom ran a low-1:25 on his RC51. It is his first time riding at Road Atlanta in four years.

Team Valvoline EMGO Suzuki’s Steve Rapp tested both his 2002 Suzuki GSX-R1000 and his new 2003-model Suzuki GSX-R1000 Formula Xtreme racebikes and found his older bike more comfortable and better handling on the first day of the test.

Eric Bostrom worked to dial in new chassis parts and get both his Kawasaki ZX-7RRs set-up identically.

The test marks the first time that the AMA riders have been to Road Atlanta since a new configuration for turn three was added. The riders had mixed reactions to the course change Monday, and most riders said they needed to spend more time riding the revised track before deciding whether or not the change was for the better.

There were no crashes or serious on-track incidents during the first day of the test.