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Pirelli Release From Daytona Tire Test
'where's the trophy?'
by staff
Wednesday, December 05, 2007

The Pirelli Tires Release From Daytona

Pirelli Wins Daytona Tire Test Competition

The Pirelli Daytona tire test of Monday-Tuesday, December 3-4, proved to be Pirelli's most successful ever with Pirelli riders setting the fastest lap times in all three AMA Pro Racing classes that Pirelli develops tires for: Superstock, Supersport and Formula Xtreme: fastest, fastest, and fastest.

Adding to Pirelli's accomplishments at its Daytona Tire Test was having two Pirelli riders set the fastest lap times in Superstock, pushing the competition to third best. This scenario was repeated in Formula Xtreme also on race tires, according to media posted times of competing teams using qualifying tires.

Comparing the times of Pirelli riders at Daytona to those of riders on other tires, recorded during the two days prior, under essentially the same w eather and track conditions, gives Pirelli the two fastest riders in AMA Superstock with Roadracingworld.com Suzuki's Robertino Pietri laying down the fastest Superstock lap at 1:38.58. Within two hundreds of a second from Pietri was M4 EMGO Suzuki's Blake Young, also on a Suzuki GSX-R1000 and with a lap time of 1:38.60. Again, both riders on their Pirelli Diablo Superbike Slicks had outdone all competition in Superstock.

In Formula Xtreme and Supersport it all went to Attack Kawasaki's new rider Chaz Davies. In FX Davies rode his Pirelli Diablo Superbike Slicks to a time of 1:39.53, while in Supersport Davies circulated the AMA Daytona course on his XZ-6R at a time of 1:40.65. Winner of last year's Daytona 200, Steve Rapp, took Davies' ZX-6R to a time of 1:40.20, Rapp's bike being unavailable for use for the entire test.

Other big news from Pirelli's Daytona Tire test includes participation by BMW, testing for the Daytona 200 with factory personnel and BMW Motorcycle s of Atlanta technicians taking part to support riders Nate Kern and Thomas Hinterreiter. The two BMW HP2 Sports brought in for the test were in World Endurance trim yet succeeded in setting FX lap times of 1:45.20 and 1:46.70 by Hinterreiter and Kern, respectively. BMW plans to enter four HP2 Sports in the 2008 Daytona 200.

Richie Morris Racing was also on hand with its Buell XB12R-based race bike and the liquid-cooled 2008 Buell 1125R, with Shawn Higbee doing test riding on the new machine. In restricted MotoST trim, the 1125R set a lap time of 1:47.20, but it should be noted that MotoST does not use the "AMA" course for its race but uses the banking on both ends of the super speedway. Unrestricted, the 1124R ran a time of 1:45.70, which was limited by the bike running out of gearing before coming into Daytona's tri-oval.

Times set by Pirelli riders at the Pirelli Daytona Tire Test include:

Pirelli Diablo Superbike Slicks
Robertino Pietri, Roadracingworld.com Suzuki, GSX-R1000, Superstock: 1:38.58
Blake Young, M4 EMGO Suzuki, GSX-R1000, Superstock: 1:38.60
Chris Ulrich, Roadracingworld.com Suzuki, GSX-R1000, Superstock: 1:39.60
Chaz Davies, Attack Kawasaki, ZX-6R, Formula Xtreme: 1:39.53
Steve Rapp, Attack Kawasaki, ZX-6R, Formula Xtreme, 1:40.20
Martin Cardenas, M4 EMGO Suzuki, GSX-R600, Formula Xtreme, 1:41.98

Pirelli Diablo Supercorsa DOT racing tires
Chaz Davies, Attack Kawasaki, XZ-6R, Supersport: 1:40.65.
Steve Rapp, Attack Kawasaki, XZ-6R, Supersport: 1:41.51
Martin Cardenas, M4 EMGO Suzuki, GSX-R600, Supersport: 1:42.06
Cory West, M4 EMGO Suzuki, GSX-R600, Supersport: 1:42.9
Taylor Knapp, Kawasaki ZX-6R, Supersport: 1:44.30
Lenny Hale, Skunk Racing, Yamaha YZF-R6, Supersport: 1:44.59