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No one knows the Daytona Dunlop Tire Test like Jim Allen. Here, he describes a typical day at Daytona International Speedway and the role he plays in ensuring everything runs smoothly at the track. Jim even runs through this year's lineup: 18 of the world's finest riders. All so you can feel as if you're attending one of the motorcycle racing world's most exclusive events.
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Jim Allen, Road Race Manager |
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Is this Daytona tire testing session the only time you test with racers during the year? |
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This is the only time we rent the track and invite teams to participate. But through the course of the season we'll go to tracks all around the country to help out and to do testing when factories rent the track for testing. Also, sometimes a new track becomes available for motorcycle racing and the teams and/or track management want to conduct some testing, so Dunlop participates too. In total it adds up to about six or eight extra testing sessions during the year. |
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Give us an idea of what your daily schedule looks like on a typical Daytona Tire Test day: When do you get up? When to the track? How is the day organized? What about debriefing meetings at end of day? What time you finally get to sleep? |
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On test days I'm usually out of bed by 6:00 am. I'll have a look at my emails right away, make some phone calls, get some breakfast and be at the track by 7:30 or 8:00 a.m. I'll get together with the other Dunlop technicians and engineers and we'll decide what Dunlop staff person will work with each team, what tires need to be tested, in what order, and who is the best candidate to do the testing required. A rider who is good at differentiating between compounds might tackle that job, while another rider might be asked to look at some different casing ideas. As the day progresses each technician will be making notes and bringing ideas and new findings to the attention of other Dunlop people as we wander up and down the pit lane. At the end of the day we'll have a quick visit with each of the teams, go back to the office in our garage and do a quick summary of comments by each rider on the tires he tested. We'll then do a kind of round-robin discussion and compare those findings with the comments made by other riders to see if there are any common threads. Ideally we'll make a test plan for the next day for each rider, although that sometimes changes when we've had a chance to think about it over dinner and dessert. I count myself lucky if I can get to bed by 11:00 p.m. or so. |
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What is your specific role during tire testing at Daytona? |
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Before we ever arrive, I do a lot of the organizational work: getting the teams here, working with Dunlop England and Dunlop Japan to help get the right tires developed and produced in sufficient quantities, lining up Dunlop personnel. Once we arrive, I do a lot of service tech work here at the track, working to get feedback from the riders and teams. We bring in a lot of Dunlop personnel to work with all these teams, then we collate the information we've gained to find the proper path for development. |
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How many people are actively involved on the Dunlop crew during Daytona tire test? |
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We have three fitters, three balancers, two utility people and two service technicians each from England, Japan and the U.S., including the English and
Japanese heads of tire development, David Watkins and Mike Takeuchi. That looks like 14 Dunlop staff people in all.
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When does the Dunlop Daytona tire testing session take place, and who will be in attendance? |
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This year, the test dates are December 9th, 10th and 11th. As of this interview, the teams in attendance will include: American Honda with Miguel Duhamel, Kurtis Roberts and Ben Bostrom; Yamaha USA with Damon Buckmaster, Aaron Gobert, Jason DiSalvo and Jamie Hacking; Kawasaki USA with Tommy Hayden, Tony Meiring and Eric Bostrom; Yoshimura Suzuki with Mat Mladin, Aaron Yates and Ben Spies; Austin Ducati with Anthony Gobert; Erion Racing with Jake Zemke, Roger Lee Hayden and Alex Gobert; and Bruce Transportation Group with Marty Craggill. |
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