On a bright and sunny February morning at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California, Suzuki execs were happily monitoring the testing progress of the pre-production ‘09 Suzuki GSX-R1000 K9—but unhappiness loomed on the horizon.The all-new K9 would be the centerpiece of Suzuki’s assault on the 2009 American Superbike title. The Rockstar Makita Suzuki riders had mixed feelings about the new model. Mat Mladin, who likes a stiff motorcycle to compliment his aggressive style, thought it was too soft. Tommy Hayden liked the ergonomics and power and thought it was a perfect fit. And new boy Blake Young was busily adjusting to life on factory team.
The K9s had arrived late and were very raw at Fontana. Regardless, these were pre-production units and couldn’t be raced. The production bikes were supposed to arrive soon and work could begin to ensure that Suzuki’s 45-race Superbike win streak was unbroken.
Even with the scarcity of...
Even with the scarcity of preparation time on the older machinery, the Mladin and the Yoshimura team were quietly confident they could get the job done at Daytona.
“Well, we really didn’t have an option,” Yoshimura boss Don Sakakura recalled about the morning of the decision. “We obviously wanted to have entries at Daytona. Honestly, we just felt we’d build some equipment and try to salvage some points; those were our thoughts going in with very little prep time and no testing time.” But Sakakura knew that “Suzuki builds a good solid platform with the GSX-R. It is a production motorcycle that we changed a few components and went racing with it, off-the-shelf, homologated parts. And very reliable, a very good balanced machine.
Mladin's long-time crew chief...
Mladin's long-time crew chief Peter Doyle had a lot to think about in a very short amount of time prior to Daytona.