Despite encountering unseasonably cool ambient air temperaures, combined with strong breezes that produce wind chills in the 30s, a cadré of road racers from MotoAmerica’s Superbike, Supersport, Mission King Of The Baggers, Mission Super Hooligan National Championship, and Talent Cup classes participated in the first day of the two-day Dunlop Pre-Season Test at Circuit of The Americas (COTA) in Austin, Texas.

OrangeCat Racing BMW Superbike rider Sean Dylan Kelly emerged as the fastest overall rider on day one with a lap of 2:09.538. The Miami-based former Supersport Champion and former Moto2 World Championship rider seemed completely non-plussed by the weather as he and his crew worked diligently to hone the setup on his #40 BMW M 1000 RR Superbike.

“It was a really solid first day of testing,” commented Kelly. “I’m really happy to be back at COTA. Obviously, the one track that I have a Superbike win at, so it holds a special place in my heart. It’s more important than that. It’s just nice to come to a track that I have a direct comparison with the BMW of what I’ve done here. It makes the test look more efficient because we’ve been testing at other tracks that I haven’t ridden the BMW at ever, since 2024. It was a bit of a difficult day because of the weather, but it was still nice to be able to get through our whole testing plan today. Did a lot of laps. Really happy with how I grew throughout the day. Confidence got a lot better. Connection with the bike was improving lap by lap. We answered a lot of questions too, which I’m happy about. Lap times are off because of the conditions, but at least it put us still best for the day. Obviously suits well. Looking forward to more work tomorrow. We’re going to keep on working hard. I do want to take a second to say thank you to the whole OrangeCat Racing team. They’re doing an amazing job. I’m really proud of the crew and the team.

“The weather does look a little bit better for tomorrow, and we need it. Tomorrow will be our last day of testing before round one, so that means we still have some more questions to answer and get us as 100% ready as we can be for round one.”

Class leaders on day one were Supersport rider Xavi Forés, who is Strack Racing Yamaha rider Blake Davis’s crew chief. The former Supersport Champion and World Championship competitor threw his leg over Davis’s spare Yamaha YZF-R9 and notched a fastest lap of 2:14.621. Kyle Wyman was the fastest Mission King Of The Baggers rider with a lap of 2:14.070 aboard his #1 Harley-Davidson x Dynojet Factory Racing Road Glide. Andrew Lee went quickest among the Superbike Cup riders with a lap of 2:12.725 on his Real Steel Honda CBR1000RR-R Fireblade SP. Mission Super Hooligan National Championship competitor Corey Alexander led the high-handlebars class with a 2:18.320 fastest lap in the saddle of his ARCH Racing 2s-R. And former Mini Cup Champion Nathan Gouker was the fastest Talent Cup rider on day one with a lap of 2:28.897 on his Quarterley Racing Krämer APX-350 MA.

The Dunlop Pre-Season Test concludes on Tuesday at COTA, and the riders are expected to lower their lap times even more as a result of the improved weather conditions that are forecast, as well as insights gained from having a good amount of laps under their belts from day one.