After being rained out the first day, Day 2 of Dunlop’s Daytona Tire Test was almost a complete wash due to sporadic rain and oil being spilt on track when a rider’s Harley-Davidson XR1200 engine failed and oiled the racing line. A total of 53 riders that compete in the premier American Superbike, Daytona Sportbike, Supersport and Pro Vance & Hines XR1200 Series traveled to Daytona Beach, Florida to evaluate the durability of Dunlop’s racing tires on Daytona’s fresh paved surface in preparation for the AMA road racing season opener taking place March 10 – 12, 2011. Due to the conditions riders only got a handful of laps and it is unclear if enough information was gathered to consider the test a success.
In the Superbike class, reigning champ, Josh Hayes posted the quickest time of the test recording a lap time of 1’38.795 aboard his 2011 Yamaha YZF-R1. Second and third quickest were the Yoshimura-prepped Suzuki GSX-R1000s of Tommy Hayden and Blake Young. Fourth fastest was Eric Bostrom who is rejoining the series after a taking a sabbatical. Bostrom will be riding Kawasaki’s recently redesigned ZX-10R that you can read about in the
2011 Kawasaki Ninja ZX-10R First Ride. Rounding out the top five was Larry Pegram who will be competing on BMW’s Superbike as tested in the
2010 BMW S1000RR Comparison Track review.
Young gun P.J. Jacobsen set the fastest time (1’51.822) in the Daytona Sportbike class aboard a Ducati 848 EVO as reviewed in the
2011 Ducati 848 EVO Superbike First Ride. Next up was Jake Zemke who will campaign a Yamaha YZF-R6 with the Project 1 Atlanta squad. Third went to Jason DiSalvo who is also returning to the AMA racing season on a Ducati after competing in the World Supersport ranks last year. Meanwhile Danny Eslick was fourth and Cory West was fifth aboard Suzuki’s recently updated GSX-R600 that you can learn more about in the
2011 Suzuki GSX-R600 and GSX-R750 First Look.
AMERICAN SUPERBIKE:
1. Josh Hayes (Yamaha) 1’38.795
2. Tommy Hayden (Suzuki) 1’39.074
3. Blake Young (Suzuki) 1’39.416
4. Eric Bostrom (Kawasaki) 1’39.930
5. Larry Pegram (BMW) 1’39.983
6. Ben Bostrom (Suzuki) 1’40.282
7. Roger Hayden (Suzuki) 1’40.676
8. Martin Cardenas (Suzuki) 1’40.995
9. Chris Ulrich (Suzuki) 1'41.497
10. Geoff May (Buell) 1'42.139
DAYTONA SPORTBIKE:
1. P.J. Jacobsen (Ducati) 1’51.822
2. Jake Zemke (Yamaha) 1’51.987
3. Jason DiSalvo (Ducati) 1’52.423
4. Danny Eslick (Suzuki) 1’52.423
5. Cory West (Suzuki) 1’53.989
6. Santiago Villa (Suzuki) 1’54.025
7. J.D. Beach (Kawasaki) 1’54.045
8. Dane Westby (Suzuki) 1’54.185
9. Paul Allison (Yamaha) 1’54.218
10. Taylor Knapp (Suzuki) 1’55.111
