It's 10 AM local time here at Daytona, and the first signs of testing activity are beginning to occur, as the Yamaha team warms up an R7 Superbike with a WSC paintjob and a black "G"on the number plate.

A young Japanese man named Akira Ryo is milling around the pits. It looks as if he's brought along a cadre of Japanese engineers and the same GSX-R prototype that Ryo, Chambon and P.F. Chili tested in Japan a few weeks ago.

John Kocinski is here to ride the CompAcc Ducati.

Remember your last (astronomical) hotel bill for Bike Week? Well, the going rate for a room on the beach this time of year is somewhere around 22 bucks a night.