2011 Daytona Tire Test

And so it begins!


The official beginning of the 2011 season for the San Diego BMW Motorcycles powered by Lee’s Cycle team was the Daytona Dunlop Tire Test Jan 18-19.

Riders Jeremy Toye and Gary Orr are competing in the 2011 AMA Superbike season.



Since Daytona is the season opener and the most unique track on the schedule, Hauling 3 bikes and all our gear 4860 miles for a day and a half of track time almost sounded reasonable. The decision was made Monday to attend the Dunlop Tire test and the bikes were prepped and Sprinter was loaded just in time for volunteer driver, and all around irom-man Seth to leave on Thursday evening. Riders and crew flew in on Sunday and were greeted to an unloaded van at 8 am on Monday morning. The track was wet from some overnight rain, but we were still optimistic that it would clear up.






Dunlop brought plenty of tires. Each Superbike rider had an allotment of about 12 tires, and had different compounds and construction options to choose from.






Day one was a total washout. The rain started slow and steady just after we arrived. Unlike most tracks, the Superbike class doesn’t run in the rain at Daytona. Dunlop was not there to test rain tires anyway, so the decision was made around noon to send everyone back to the hotel.

Day two didn’t start well, but the rain died down by 9am and the Jet Dryers were sent out to dry the track. We didn't make it on the track until a little after noon on the second day. As this was officially my first time out with the AMA Superbike field, I took AMA Race director, David McGrath’s advice to heart. He said to “sneak up on it”, and I tried to do just that. The first 6 or 8 laps I felt like I didn't belonged out there, but I tried to learn the track and learn where I could find speed. The banking is unlike anything else. It feels as if you are riding on a wall, and if you were to slow down too much you would surely slide all the way to the bottom. I admit I was intimidated, but by the end of the session I was getting out of the chicane and accelerating all the way through. I was seeing 186 on the Speedo at the start finish line, but I was still slow in the infield. The tires that are used at Daytona are Hard. Stiff and hard means not nearly as sticky as the Dunlops we are used to running. Going fast in the fast parts of a track is the easiest way to reduce lap times, so I was concentrating on getting a good drive and learning the best lines on the banking. The infield is certainly important too, but the bang for the buck is up on the banking, and the BMW really shines there. The S1000RR motor is strong, and it held it’s own with the factory superbikes. I was starting to feel a little better about the track by the end of the session, and it is obvious that getting on to the banking correctly will be important.

Jeremy spent his session fighting with the front end of the motorcycle and even had the bike slide on the banking. It was determined that something failed internally in the aftermarket fork we were testing. We will tear it apart and find out what failed when the truck gets back with the bikes. It is still in Texas…. Jody and Jason quickly swapped the fork for the Ohlins units we had and we readied ourselves for the next session.

Unfortunately, it started raining again before our second session, which eventually happened at 5:15 pm. The track had oil on the banking and all the way through turn one, so better lap times were impossible for most of the top-level riders. A couple of us new to this track were able to decrease our lap times relative to the earlier session. I made a respectable 1.6 second improvement, but was still over 4 seconds off the fast guys pace as we were all forced to tip-toe through the oil in turn one. I worked on the infield and felt like I made some progress, this time running with the traction control on and felt like I was quicker everywhere except entering the banking. Jeremy spent most of the session dialling in the new fork and was only slightly off his first session pace. Which represented improvement for him as well considering the oil.



All in all, it was a lot of time and expense to go to for relatively little track time, but it was valuable track time and I know we will be that much further ahead with bike set-up (and track knowledge) when race day rolls around. There is a lot of work to do before the March 11-13 season opener. Wish us luck!

Gary Orr