Features 28 May 2013

Industry Insight: Team Honda Racing's Paul Free

Team Honda Racing principal on the start to 2013 and hopes for the upcoming round.

In today’s Industry Insight, CycleOnline.com.au speaks to Team Honda Racing principal Paul Free about the outfit’s start to the 2013 season, including the new makeup of its team. We also find out why he thinks the factory Fireblades of Jamie Stauffer and Josh Hook will be a force again at Queensland Raceway.

Paul Free keeps a watchful eye over Honda's factory road race program in the Australian Superbike Championship. Image: Andrew Gosling/TBG Sport.

Paul Free keeps a watchful eye over Honda’s factory road race program in the Australian Superbike Championship. Image: Andrew Gosling/TBG Sport.

Let’s revisit Tasmania for a moment. Track time was limited and there were a couple of small setbacks for the team, namely Josh’s crash and Jamie’s technical exclusion in Superpole. Your riders still came away with commendable results. How do you feel you fared overall as a team?

It was a fairly difficult weekend. We went into it with very very little practice time back on the Dunlop tyre because from the World Superbike event we only did it on the other control tyre with Josh and Jamie in the separate classes. We did one day prior to the event which all the teams tested at and it was really not enough. I think our big problem was that we tried to cram a lot into one day, and, even though you’re always learning, there was just too much to cover. We may have even lost a little bit of direction there with our motorbike.

More than anything we probably didn’t analyse well enough what we did do on that day, and going into the race event we thought we had some answers to lift the guys up in from their times where they were at their test day and it sort of wasn’t to be. We didn’t really progress Jamie forward much at all from the test. Young Josh kept improving at the race event, although he did have that setback in race one which he recovered from exceptionally well which I was really proud of.

We really enjoy being at the V8 Supercar event. Some of the scheduling wasn’t perfect, but when you’re only doing one event a year with them or what we’re doing this year, you can’t ask or demand great track time or a perfect situation. The event works well, and is extremely well run. There were no hiccups, it was as smooth as.

Along with industry support, Team Honda Racing appears to have quite a bit of backing from outside-industry sponsors. How important is to be at the V8 Supercar events for your team and do you feel like there should be more than one on the calendar?

Yeah of course there should. Those events are good for motorcycling in general, for two reasons. One, you’re competing in front of a much larger audience than we normally see at bike-only events, and two, more importantly, is the live TV coverage, and the footage that came out of that weekend. The footage from Saturday and Sunday was nothing but exceptional, some of the slow-mo footage was just unbelievable. Those events, and that Channel 7 telecast, is massively important for us – massively. It is very important to be working on that level.

Free is confident that Jamie Stauffer will challenge for race wins at Queensland Raceway. Image: Andrew Gosling/TBG Sport.

Free is confident that Jamie Stauffer will challenge for race wins at Queensland Raceway. Image: Andrew Gosling/TBG Sport.

Bring us up to speed with the team’s testing day at Queensland Raceway. Can you tell us what you focused on and what you felt you were able to take away from the session to prepare you for that next round?

I don’t feel like as far as outright lap times that we showed, with Jamie especially, what our real potential is. We tested quite a few different ideas and settings and we resolved some of the issues that he had at Queensland Raceway from last year – resolved some, but didn’t resolve others – and possibly we created some others. When you pick up in one area you possibly lose out in another area. I don’t think we were anywhere near having an ideal motorcycle at the end of that one-day test, but what we took away from it was probably one of the most positive outcomes, from my view, that I have ever come away from a test with.

So we’ve got some real direction and real ideas to test when we go back up there before the event, and I’m really looking forward to putting those ideas into the bike on the track and for Jamie and Josh to test. Both the riders and myself will be there on the fifth of June to work with a group of participants in an advanced course through HART (Honda Australia Rider Training), then we’ll be on track on the sixth and seventh.

Jamie has the runs on the board when it comes to Queensland Raceway. In speaking with him a short time ago he mentioned it would be good to go back to the track because he feels like he should be able to pick up where he left off with very few changes within the team or to the bike. Do you feel he’ll be at the level we’ve seen him at the past few years?

I think so. There’s no reason at all why he shouldn’t be able to dominate at Queensland Raceway. Some of his complaints about the bike fall in line with the issues we had at Tasmania, so if the team and myself can resolve these issues and ultimately make Jamie feel comfortable there is no reason why he can’t run at the front and set new lap records. The tyres that Dunlop have provided for us going forward are an advance in both grip and feel, so I can’t see any reason why he can’t be dominant again.

Josh Hook is a future star of the category, according to Free. Image: Andrew Gosling/TBG Sport.

Josh Hook is a future star of the category, according to Free. Image: Andrew Gosling/TBG Sport.

In 2012 you had two very experienced Superbike riders in your squad. Now you have the one in Jamie, and a very skilled rookie in Josh. Does this change the dynamic of the team at all?

Josh is a hellishly fast motorcycle rider, but really didn’t have a massive amount of experience when it came to giving feedback to a technician or someone that he is working with. And we struggled with that last year. That was probably our biggest problem last year with him being consistently competitive on the CBR600RR. It did get better and develop later in the year, but I don’t think we ever got him working to a level that he needed to be.

Since the conversion last year from being a Supersport 600 rider in a main team but not with a whole lot of pressure, to coming into filling the boots of Wayne Maxwell and stepping up to ride the Superbike as a profession, I’ve got to say Josh has responded so well. Over the last few months he has started working with a trainer down here in Melbourne that helps him out with a program and his nutrition. He has listened to what we have asked of him, as a team, and what we require in terms of the level of professionalism that he has needed to lift to.

This latest test day just recently showed me that this kid is right on the correct path. He is progressing so well, so fast. With another couple of days testing at Queensland Raceway prior to the race event I think he is going to shock people with just how fast he is. We’re really looking forward to that.

Thanks for the chat, Paul.

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