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PIRELLI TIRE TEST REPORT - CORY WEST

AMA Supersport racer Cory West gives you the lowdown on all the action during the Pirelli tire test at Daytona International Speedway.

After my trip to Daytona in October for the fall CCS Race of Champions, I talked to Pirelli about coming back down to do a tire test in December. They wanted me to help them out with their new DOT race tires, so Chuck (my wrench) and I penciled that weekend in on our calendars.

The Dunlop teams tested on Monday-Wednesday and the Pirelli riders tested Thursday and Friday, which was good for us because the Dunlop riders helped clean the track up before we got on it. This was my first real taste of what my new R6 would feel like for next season and I really took advantage of the track time as much as possible.

There were 13 riders at the track for the Pirelli test which meant there wouldn’t be very much drafting and racing with the other riders. It was kind of hard to get used to just turning laps all by myself sometimes, especially coming around the banking and down that long front straight all alone. It was nice to turn all the laps and get very familiar with the track though; I put in around 70 laps on Thursday and 30 laps on Friday.

Thursday was the most productive day because of the nicer weather, with temps in the mid-60's and light winds. I ran some long stints on quite a few different tire combinations to try and see what tires were going to be better for the 22 lap 600cc Supersport race in March. Pirelli has an all new DOT tire for the upcoming season and I am really excited about how good it felt already. The banking at Daytona is notoriously hard on the left side of the rear tires, and that has always caused an issue as far as durability over race distance. The new tires held up well with as much as 30 laps on one tire. The grip level was still good too, which is going to be a big factor when it gets close to the end of the race.

Friday turned out to be kind of a crummy day. The weather was much cooler with highs only in the low 50's and high winds up to 30mph. That made it harder to turn quick lap times with such low temps in the tires and track surface. I still ran through a couple different rear tires before lunch and then we pretty much called it a day. Pirelli seemed happy with my feedback and Chuck was happy to get our set-up a little closer for our first race in March.

It was nice to compare times with the other Pirelli riders and Dunlop riders that I will be racing against next season. I heard that the Dunlop riders had a little nicer weather and from what we saw there is still some room for improvement, but we are definitely competitive already. The move to a smaller displacement motorcycle and smaller class may pay off very well next season and I can't wait to tell you more about it! Stay tuned!!

Cory West #13

(Photos: Brian J Nelson)