MotoAmerica: Preseason Testing
The agenda for a racing team’s preseason testing can be overwhelming. MotoAmerica, the official FIM/AMA sanctioned roadracing series in North America, held this preseason test in 2016 at the Circuit of the Americas (COTA) in Austin, Texas.
![Suzuki Factory Racing team check their riders' lap times](https://motospecta.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/02-MotoAmerica-COTA-2016.03.23-22YoshTimingScreen.jpg)
Early on the first day of testing the Yoshimura Suzuki Factory Racing team check the status of their riders, Toni Elias and Roger Hayden, on the live-timing screen in their pit garage
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The agenda for a preseason test can be overwhelming: testing machines and engines to meet new technical regulations, new tires, and in many cases new riders and crew members. Team Rabid Transit make changes to multiple settings on a new Yamaha YZF-R1 so newly-signed South African rider Sheridan Morais can test as many variations as possible in each 50-minute test session.
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Test days begin with technical inspection at 7:00 a.m. and wrap up in early evening – a 12-hour day in most cases. While the goal is to make bike and rider the fastest combination possible, the rider will get just four 50-minute sessions on track. For the balance (nine hours or so) the bike will be tweaked, taken apart, checked, put back together, and stared at, in search of more quickness.
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Access to areas directly above the team garages provided some nice perspectives to capture candid moments. 2015 Superstock 1000 champion Jake Gagne autographs a helmet for a fan who has been happily collecting rider signatures up and down the paddock all day.
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Testing is an unnatural, lonely state for racers accustomed to close quarters, nose-to-tail combat.
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Racing at the national level requires a lot of stuff. Semis full of stuff.
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2015 MotoAmerica Superbike champion, Cameron Beaubier pulls in to hand off his MonsterEnergy/Graves Yamaha YZF-R1 for the next round of set-up changes. The lower deck of the COTA grandstands is cantilevered over the pit lane putting fans and photographers literally on top of the action.
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The official introduction of the Yoshimura Suzuki Factory Racing team, their Suzuki GSX-R1000 bikes in 2016 race livery, and riders Roger Hayden (left) and Tony Elias (right). Jonathan Green asks the tough questions for Speed City Broadcast.
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The first gathering of teams for the season is also a time to catch up with old friends and meet new competitors. Danny Walker (l), team owner and manager with racer Jake Gagne.
![](https://motospecta.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/02-MotoAmerica-COTA-9277ParisOnBikeM4.jpg)
Melissa Paris makes one last check as she pulls out into pit lane before heading out onto the track.
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At an afternoon press conference Garret Gerloff (l) and Cameron Beaubier (c) prepare their own thoughts about the coming season as Roger Hayden responds to questions from the press.
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Texas-size jumbo screens (note seating for size comparison) line both sides of the start-finish straightaway announcing MotoGP races taking place at COTA three weeks after the preseason test. The combined MotoGP and MotoAmerica event would include four days of practice and racing.