Hayes leads teams to Daytona tire test

From AMA Pro Racing

DAYTONA BEACH, FL - AMA Pro Racing and Dunlop Tire will conduct a two-day test session at the newly resurfaced Daytona International Speedway on Monday and Tuesday. All four AMA Pro Road Racing classes will be participating in the first open test for the AMA Pro Road Racing competitors. A limited test was conducted last December by Dunlop Tire and successfully paved the way for the first big open test of 2011.

An impressive 53 rider entry list has been set for the two-day test with 17 AMA Pro National Guard SuperBike riders, 15 AMA Pro Daytona SportBike riders, 10 AMA Pro SuperSport riders and 11 AMA Pro Vance & Hines XR1200 Series riders. 

The test will begin at 12:00 noon on Monday and run until 5:00pm and then the riders will have a full day on the track on Tuesday, running from 9:00am until 5:00 pm.

Highlighting the entry will be 2010 National Guard SuperBike Champion Josh Hayes with his Yamaha now sporting the coveted Number One plate. He will be joined by 2010 Daytona SportBike Champion Martin Cardenas, making his National Guard SuperBike debut on a Team M4 Suzuki. Also testing for the first time at Daytona in 2011 will be Tommy Hayden, Blake Young, Chris Ulrich, Geoff May, Chris Clark and others. 

A number of riders will be making their debuts on new team or equipment combinations including Ben Bostrom, Larry Pegram, Eric Bostrom and the aforementioned Cardenas. Rejoining the AMA Pro series in 2011 is Roger Hayden. 

The series will also welcome back Kawasaki to AMA Pro Road Racing for this year's Daytona round. The exciting new project will see Eric Bostrom riding the iconic green Kawasaki Ninjas at Daytona in both the SuperBike and Daytona SportBike classes with the Team Cycle World Attack Performance program. 

Larry Pegram has made an equipment change, riding a BMW in this year's series.

Ben Bostrom will join Roger Hayden at the Jordan Motorsports team in a complete rider change for the team. Hayden will be riding the National Guard Suzuki and Bostrom will be aboard the famous number 23 Jordan Suzuki.

In the AMA Pro Daytona SportBike category, 2009 Daytona SportBike Champion Danny Eslick will get his first look at the new track surface and he will be joined by a number of new rider team/equipment combinations as well, including Dane Westby riding with Team M4 Suzuki, Taylor Knapp moving to Vesrah Suzuki alongside Cory West, and P.J. Jacobsen riding a Ducati for Celtic Racing with technical support from Fast by Ferracci. The series will also see the return of Jason DiSalvo, riding with Team Latus Motors.

AMA Pro 2010 SuperSport Young Gun East Division champion J.D. Beach will make his debut in the Daytona SportBike class aboard the exciting new Kawasaki entry alongside Eric Bostrom as part of the Team Cycle World Attack Performance program with Kawasaki.

AMA Pro SuperSport race winners Elena Myers and James Rispoli headline the 10 SuperSport bikes that will be testing at Daytona, getting their first look at the new asphalt, the second resurfacing in track history and the first since 1978. 

The AMA Pro Vance & Hines XR1200 Series, which debuted last year in June at Road America, will be taking to the Daytona highbanks for the first time. Bolstered by another healthy addition to the prize money fund by Harley-Davidson, the test will see a number of familiar names, including Michael Barnes, Kyle Wyman, Paul Schwemmer, Chris Fillmore and Clinton Seller. Making a welcome debut in road racing will be AMA Pro Flat Track star Joe Kopp with Team Latus Motors and he will joined by Chase McFarland on a second Latus XR1200. AMA Pro 2009 SuperSport Young Gun West Division Champion Ricky Parker will also be testing a XR1200.

Following the earlier limited testing this past December, Dunlop Tire engineers will be on hand to closely monitor the performance of the various new combinations. The previous test was quite successful with the new surface receiving many complements from not only the AMA Pro riders that participated but also from the other categories of motorsports that have tested on the amazingly smooth new surface.

The AMA Pro teams will return in March for the opening rounds of the 2011 season with the Daytona 200 Week activities beginning March 5 with the Daytona Supercross event. The AMA Pro Flat Track events at the DAYTONA Flat Track are scheduled for Thursday, March 10 and Friday, March 11. The AMA Pro Road Racing activities begin Thursday, March 10 and the closing race of Bike Week this year will be the famous Daytona 200, which will be run during the day on Saturday, March 12.