DAYTONA BEACH, FL, DEC 7: The final day of the Dunlop Daytona tire test ended quickly for the Erion Honda team.
Erion Honda’s Jake Zemke lost the front end entering the chicane on his first flying lap. Though he was able to ride his Honda CBR600RR back to the pits, it was too heavily damaged for the team to continue testing. Because the bike was built for the test at the last minute-Kevin Erion sold all of the 2008 race bikes at the end of the season-there weren’t enough parts to re-build it.
That ended the day for Zemke and Chris Peris, who were splitting time on the team’s lone bike.
Graves Motorsports Yamaha’s Tommy Aquino crashed in the same place shortly afterwards, which got the attention of race officials. The test was briefly shut down so the chicane entrance could be inspected. After a short delay, the test resumed, though with very few riders.
The only team still running is Yamaha, with both the factory and Graves Motorsports Yamaha teams. Privateer Dane Westby is the only other rider on track. Team M4 EMGO Suzuki packed up after last night, as did the Buell effort, which accomplished their test goals during the previous two days.
The Daytona SportBike session ends at noon, with American Superbikes taking to the track from 1:00 to 5:00 p.m.
