Copyright 2002, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

Yamaha teammates Anthony and Aaron Gobert completed two days of testing on the 1.6-mile Streets of Willow racetrack in Rosamond, California Wednesday and are planning to return to competition during the July 11-14 AMA/World Superbike event at Laguna Seca Raceway in Monterey, California. The test at Willow was conducted in 110 degree F weather.

In his first track outing since breaking his right leg in a Superbike qualifying crash at Road Atlanta May 17, Anthony Gobert rode for two days, Tuesday and Wednesday, July 2-3, on his factory Yamaha YZF-R7 Superbike.

“At the start of the test, my leg wasn’t too good,” said Go-Show. “I didn’t have any strength or much movement in it, and my foot kept coming off the foot rest.” The eldest Gobert added that his leg got better over the two days and that he was happy with how the test went. “My leg wasn’t real good over these two days, but I have a few more days to rest.

“Now I’m just excited about Laguna. The plan is to race all four races (AMA Supersport, AMA Superbike, and both World Superbike races). My fitness won’t be what it could be. Sitting on the couch for four weeks with your leg elevated isn’t exactly good for the endurance, but I’ll take it kind of easy in practice and save myself for the race.

“I’m just really stoked that I got the wild card for the World Supers. I mean, I’m really pumped! I really wanted to race at Laguna because I always get tons of supporters there and I want to put on a good show for them.”

In his first ride since suffering a list of injuries in a Supersport race crash at Daytona International Speedway in early March, Aaron Gobert, age 21, rode his factory Yamaha YZF-R6 at the test.

“It went good,” said the middle Gobert brother. “I went three seconds per lap faster on the second day than the first.”

When asked why the team chose the Streets course for the test, Aaron replied, “If you can ride there, you can ride anywhere.”

Saying he planned to recover from the exhausting test over the holiday, Aaron Gobert added that Graves Motorsports Yamaha’s Chuck Graves is building another YZF-R1-based Formula Xtreme bike over the Fourth of July weekend so Aaron can race in both the FX and Supersport races at Laguna Seca. Graves team members sacrificed their Memorial Day weekend to build Damon Buckmaster’s latest generation R1 Formula Xtreme bike for the race at Pikes Peak.

The third racing Gobert brother, 18-year-old Alex, will be at Laguna Seca but will be unable to race due to his broken right foot, said brother Aaron.