Allerton and Halliday complete Queensland Raceway test.
New Yamaha Racing Team (YRT) with Yamaha Motor Insurance (YMI) teammates Glenn Allerton and Cru Halliday continued YRT’s preliminary evaluations of the 2015 YZF-R1M at Queensland Raceway on Tuesday.
Current triple Australian Superbike Champion Allerton made his debut with YRT on board the all-new R1M, which was still in street trim as the team awaits delivery of race parts to complete the build to Australasian Superbike specification.
The test marked Allerton’s transition following four years with the BMW S 1000 RR and HP4 at Next Gen Motorsports, and his first appearance with YRT since a number of guest rides during the 2010 Formula Xtreme season.
“It was an interesting day for me with a new bike, new crew, new leathers, new helmet… new everything!” Allerton told CycleOnline.com.au. “It was really good to get going on the bike, because when there’s so much hype about a new bike it’s awesome to get on it and ride.
“The first impression was positive; it’s really nimble and I would say it was probably the best handling motorbike I’ve ever felt. I’m happy and as we get more chances to go testing we can continue that development. I’m super-confident going into the start of the year.”
Halliday, the lone rider to be re-signed by YRT for 2015 alongside incoming teammates Allerton and Wayne Maxwell, took the opportunity to turn his first laps on the R1M and said it took time to adapt to after campaigning four seasons on the previous model since 2010.
“It was a big opportunity to ride the new R1M,” Halliday told CycleOnline. “I was on the previous version for four years, so it was time for a change, and the new bike’s a lot more nimble and very small. It’s definitely an unbelievable package and I feel like we can be up the pointy-end for 2015.
“My first impression was that it’s obviously a lot different to my previous R1. It’s a lot faster and lighter, plus the electronics package is unbelievable to me. Just in street form it was almost at race speed already, so by the time we convert it into a race package it will be a bike to watch for.”
Yesterday’s test took place without reigning Australasian Superbike Champion Maxwell, who shook down the YZF-R1M in his first outing with YRT late last month. Both Allerton and Halliday shared the same test bike during this week’s evaluations.