As most teams found during the weekend, finding grip around the slick, twisty VIR racetrack was difficult and resulted in high attrition for the races that included several crashes during the race weekend for the Safety First Suzuki team. As team owner Kevin Hanson noticed, “We tried some different settings to find Bobby (Fong) and Scotty (Ryan) more grip and make the bike transition easier. By Sunday’s Supersport race, we finally got it to where the guys were comfortable. While we were trying to find a good set-up, we lost some ground in qualifying and ended up a bit farther back than we should have. After Saturdays Formula Xtreme race though, we took what we learned from that and made improvements for Sunday that both riders said worked much better. The riders are working well in regards to qualifying and getting the best out of the Michelin tires.  Now they are starting to go out, light the switch in qualifying and run their fastest times on the first few laps of a new tire.  It’s unfortunate that Bobby crashed in both races, but that’s part of the learning curve with a young rider and finding the limits.  It’s great seeing that every race weekend he gets faster and all of the AMA tracks are new to him other than the California rounds.

Hanson also commented, “Scotty took to the settings we made and turned significantly faster laps during the Supersport race on Sunday, almost a second and a half faster.  He is picking up tracks much more rapidly as the year goes along and is able to give real good feedback during debriefing sessions that allow us to move forward with our set up for each session.”

Bobby Fong-

Finished DNF(Classified 28th) -FX, DNF (Classified 36th)- Supersport

“I just got done with the worst AMA race weekend I have ever had. This track is technical with 18 turns packed into a short track.  The full-course layout that we don’t use looks much more interesting. I really wanted to do well these last three races, but now it’s down to the last two races.  I was pulling away from the group I was in during the FX race when I lost the front in turn one and was as far up as 12th during the ultra-competitive Supersport race when I had the spectacular crash in the back section that I guess Speed TV caught. I had a break through regarding debriefing for Sunday’s race which will definitely help me for the rest of the season!”

Fong current is in 7th place for Formula Xtreme points and is sitting in 18th in Supersport.

Scotty Ryan-

Finished 23rd - FX, 22nd-Supersport

“I had a hard time with this track. It was slick everywhere. The rain on Friday didn’t help as it cut our track time down and we really didn’t get caught up until Sunday morning, when we tried something radically different for the set up, which seemed to work well.  I have to thank my crew chief, Jim Rashid this weekend.  We sat down and had some very long debriefing session, going corner by corner to discuss what the bike was doing so Bobby and I could get comfortable on the bike and have some confidence in the front end of the bike, as most of the track, especially the last section, which requires confidence to be fast. What really helped is that we are giving better feedback regarding what the bike is doing so the team can head in the right direction and that can only come with more time working together. I was at Road Atlanta last year, so I will have some good baselines to work with next race as opposed to going into the weekend cold like I did here.”

Ryan remained in 19th for Formula Xtreme and 31st place in Supersport after the VIR round.

Coming up next is Road Atlanta in two weeks time.  The team will take part in Thursday practice for testing and get some additional footage for various projects that Safety First is doing with OnTheThrottle.tv prior to the race weekend.

Safety First Racing was formed in 2004 by police officer/racer, Kevin Hanson, based out of Chicago, IL.  For 2007, Safety First Suzuki will be competing in the AMA Superbike series in the Supersport and Formula Xtreme classes and is proud to be partnering with American Suzuki, 4&6, Michelin, Hindle Exhausts, GP Suspension, Sportbikes.net, Flipside Graphics, Vortex, Performance Friction, Pit Bull, Komodo, Suomy, Bazzaz Performance, Penske, Tsubaki, 7 Gear Performance Lubrication, R-Tech, Hotbodies, Kinesio Taping and Biofreeze. Checkout www.SAFETYFIRSTRACING.com to see the Safety First Suzuki line of apparel and casual wear. Kevin Hanson continues to educate elementary school aged children nationwide about the importance of helmet usage.

from Safety First Suzuki