Wyman scores top-ten finishes in trying weekend in Alabama
LEEDS, Ala. (Sept. 21) -- Kyle Wyman came home with two top-ten finishes this past weekend at Barber Motorsports Park in a trying weekend, posting 7th and 10th places in races one and two, respectively. The KATO Fastening/KWR Ducati Team maintained 6th in series standings with points scoring finishes in both Superbike races.
The weekend started off strong with the KWR team adapting to a new bike setup during a welcomed full dry day on the Alabama circuit. Wyman posted the 6th fastest time overall on Friday with a 1:25.121, locking him solidly in place for Superpole on Saturday morning, and only .431 seconds off of 3rd place.
“It’s been good, we’ve made some steady progress today,” Wyman said after Friday’s action. “It’s really tight to third place, so we’re right there. The bike’s coming along nicely, but what we’re after is to settle the back down a little, just to make it a little more compliant. And I’m working on my consistency. We’re close to being in it. It’s not baking hot, so it’s nicer than riding here in July.”
Wyman continued his form for 6th place in Superpole qualifying, with a 1:24.572 and his fastest lap to date around the Barber circuit, earning a second-row start for both races Saturday and Sunday.
Race one was a battle of tire conservation, and one that Wyman lost. With a strong start and running in 5th spot early on, the Ducati rider was looking to be in good position until a drastic drop in rear grip caused him to fall off the pace and settle for a 7th place result.
"Race one in the opening laps the bike was feeling better than it had most of the weekend," Wyman said. "I felt like we were going to have the pace to fight with some of the boys and on lap 8 or 9 the rear tire just completely gave up on me. The bike became so hard to ride, and I dropped from doing 25.0's to high 26's in the lap times, and I felt like I was still pushing just as hard. I just had no grip, we really missed the mark."
With plenty of data and feedback to analyze from race one, the KATO Fastening/KWR team went back to work and made changes to the rear shock to make progress on the Panigale V4 R with tire conservation. Wyman made a forward step in Sunday's morning warmup and then got prepared for another fight in race two.
Wyman got another good start in race two and fought up to 5th place once again. The rear end of the bike was working better than on Saturday, but developed a chatter issue in the front end that inhibited Wyman from maximizing the potential of the bike. A weekend best lap time (on a non-Superpole tire) came on lap 3, a 1:24.682, which was nearly as fast as he qualified on Saturday.
On lap 15, Wyman overcooked the corner entry into turn 5, also known as "Charlottes Web," ran off the track, and could not stop the bike in time for the wall, and nosed into the foam barrier at slow speed, enough to crash the bike. He was able to remount the bike as it was only mildly damaged, and got back on the race track in 14th position. With 5 laps remaining, Wyman was able to fight back to 10th with a last lap pass for another top 10. Lap 15 was a 2:04.747, losing only 40 seconds with a run-off and crash.
"We were a little bit quicker in the beginning of the race than yesterday and I felt like we were in a good spot, a bit faster than yesterday in the first laps, but then we ran into some chatter issues,” Wyman said after race two. “We were running fifth but I ended up running off the track at the Charlotte's Web hairpin. I actually crashed. I got in the wall as I couldn’t slow it down enough in the gravel, so I ended up doing the rest of the race with a busted windscreen. But I came back on in 14th and worked back up to 10th, which I was happy about.
“We made some headway with the rear as that’s been a problem for us, but it created a problem with the front. We just need to be a little closer to the front. More than anything, we need to test. At this point, we’re testing during the races, so we need to get some private laps down to throw some different settings at the bike and see what works."
The series heads to the Racing Capital of the World, Indianapolis Motor Speedway, October 9-11, 2020 for the 8th round of the MotoAmerica Championship.