Image: Russell Colvin.

Yamaha Racing Team (YRT) completed a one-day Dunlop tyre test at Victoria’s Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit yesterday, which saw both Glenn Allerton and Wayne Maxwell walking away positive after a successful test.

However, seeing yesterday’s test was held at a ride day – Phillip Island Ride Days – the two former Australian Superbike champions had to be careful of the other riders who were using the 4.445km seaside circuit as well, which meant they were unable to lay down some serious lap times.

Allerton, who took out all three races this at the Island at the opening round of the Australian Superbike Championship (ASBK) in February said it wasn’t ‘ideal’ testing for himself and the Queensland-based team in regards to getting a ultimate lap time.

“While we we’re unable to push for a decent lap time, we got a good feel for the Dunlop tyres that we tried out and got some good direction,” Allerton told CycleOnline.com.au. “It would be good if we can get a few more test days in before the end of the year. We just have to keep plugging away in regards to the settings with the Yamaha R1M.”

Along with a solid day’s worth of tyre testing the 35-year-old New South Welshman made some progress with the Öhlins forks: “I feel the bike was getting better and better all the time. In saying that I would just like some more time on the bike. For now, it’s all positive at the moment,” added Allerton who completed about 45-laps yesterday.

Allerton did admit that he didn’t do as many laps as he wanted to as it was very hard being a track day which also got red flagged a few times as well. He and the Yamaha Racing Team did use five different sets of Dunlop tyres.

Allerton’s teammate Maxwell was also upbeat about the test, saying he believed it was a positive direction where he the team were headed: “As much as every rider wants to go to the track and break lap records, we were at the track to test tyres, so we have to go through the process which has to be gone through. We did that today and we have had a successful day.”

Phillip Island can be brutal on tyres, especially the last two left-hand corners, which is why Maxwell will keep going through the set-up process so he and the team are good to go for the opening round of the ASBK, which ignites into life on the last weekend of February in conjunction with the first round of the Yamaha Finance round of the 2017 Motul Superbike World Championship.

Just like Allerton, Maxwell was unable to complete any race runs as there was not enough clear track to do anything like that. He explained that he and the team were mainly working on tyre consistency as best as they could.

In terms of more testing for the Yamaha Racing Team, nothing is locked in place as yet. It appears the next time the Yamaha YZF-R1M’s will hit the track will be at the official Motorcycling Australia (MA) test on 30 January.