MotoAmerica: Gagne Fastest In Superbike Test Session 6 At COTA

MotoAmerica: Gagne Fastest In Superbike Test Session 6 At COTA

© 2021, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc. By David Swarts.

Jake Gagne posted the fastest lap time during MotoAmerica HONOS Superbike test session six Wednesday at Circuit of The Americas (COTA).

Gagne, the 2020 MotoAmerica Superbike Championship runner-up, did a 2:09.698 on his Fresh N’ Lean Attack Performance Yamaha YZF-R1, and that time was close to Gagne’s best from Day One, a 2:09.297, in spite of much cooler and windier conditions on Wednesday.

Instead of going for fast single lap times or a setup specific to COTA, Gagne said he and his new crew are trying a lot of different things on his bike to find a better baseline setup to start the 2021 season with.

“We tried a different engine braking setup, a different thought process,” said Gagne. “We tried some different gearing and wheelbases. We tried a short bike and a long bike, stuff like that just to see what it’s like.

“This place is really good for testing because it has a little bit of everything: slow corners, fast corners, hard braking. It even has bumpy sections so we can test suspension stuff over that.”

After testing a new swingarm most of the day on Tuesday, Bobby Fong went back to his 2020-spec swingarm on his M4 ECSTAR Suzuki GSX-R1000 in session six and did the second-best lap, a 2:09.925.

Loris Baz had led every session to this point of the two-day test, but Baz crashed his Warhorse HSBK Racing Ducati New York Panigale V4 R in Turn One early in the session. Baz said he got into Turn One too hot, ran wide while trail braking, and tucked the front.

“We also made a big change and it’s much cooler than yesterday,” Baz told Roadracingworld.com. “It was a very small crash. I didn’t even come in the box. I picked up the bike and kept making laps.”

 

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