HMC Ducati Racing
comes back to home turf this weekend for the Road America Superbike
race at Elkhart Lake. Possibly the most picturesque track on
the AMA calendar, it is the most similar in layout to the fast
flowing circuits of Europe, which is sure to bring out the best
the v-twin Ducati.
Switching from the round’s shortest track to the longest
track will be no problems for Doug Chandler, who has been looking
forward to this double-header race, knowing the Ducati will
be fast here. Doug has always liked Elkhart. He feels it’s
a tough track to learn, with a lot of elevation changes, but
once you’ve got to know your way around he says it’s
the best track to race at. There are no real corner combinations,
which will suit the Ducati. The v-twin seems to be stronger
when the layout of the track is broken up with straight-aways.
It’s a fast track, even though most of the corners are
relatively low speed, which will suit the speeds the Ducati
can run. The most critical place is the Carousel (turn 9) where
the bike must carry speed through the negative camber turn.
The exit is bumpy and usually there’s a lot of chatter
from the bike as it comes out of the Carousel, making the bike
want to run wide. The rest the track’s surface is good.
Two other areas of concern are turn 14 that leads onto the front
straight-away, which requires good drive, and turn two to get
the drive onto the back straight-away. Technicians need to get
the bike handling on this back section because the bike will
be constantly on a lean right through to turn 5 and the tire
has a tendency to pump.
Elkhart is a hard track on brakes. Technicians will be constantly
replacing brake pads throughout the weekend. The hardest braking
is into turn 5, heading down hill into the first gear corner.
Water can flow across the track, under the bridge in the back
straight-away, when it rains, making racing treacherous. But
the forecast shows sunshine for the remainder of the weekend.
After three doses of bad luck, the team is ready to for a good
show this weekend in front of their home fans. result on Sunday.
