"Nothing Is Impossible", reads the tattoo on Anthony Gobert?s left arm, and after witnessing some of his victories on board some relatively ordinary motorcycles, one must believe Gobert's creed. 

His fastest lap during the recent Dunlop test was a 1:50.89, and while that is short of the best times of the test, Tony G. is in the ballpark despite suffering from poor traction at Daytona. 

Yamaha's US Superbike program hasn't been at the top in recent years, but there are signs that things could be changing.

What does his team think of Gobert thus far? "He's calm. He's a nice guy," said Yamaha crewchief Tom Houseworth. "I think we've done real well (at Daytona). It's only his second time with the team, and the first with the factory bike, so I think we did pretty good, myself. We don't race 'til March."

After finishing the December tire test, Gobert reflected on it to AMASuperbike.com.

"We made a lot of progress on the bike and improved a lot of things, but it's a bit of a shame we lost pretty much a full day because of the weather. With the set-up we've got now it's where we should be after the first day, and here it is the third day. It's not too bad," said Anthony after the test ended on Wednesday. 

"I feel happy because we've been working hard together trying to it get better, and we?ve definitely made a lot of steps to move forward, but it's a brand new motorcycle to us and we have to start from scratch. I think the team has done a pretty good job with it."

Gobert felt the Japanese technicians helped, but the differences between the Japanese riding style and his methods didn't allow them to use their ideal settings for Gobert. "A lot of the (good)stuff they have isn't really good to us."

Although he rode the Kawasaki earlier in his career, Anthony says there are significant differences in the inline fours. 

"The power is a lot stronger on the Yamaha off the bottom. So initially off the corner it doesn?t want to grip at all, it just wants to wheelspin, especially at this racetrack. It makes it quite difficult to ride. Basically, I'm just trying to get used to the four-cylinder power again, you know? You get used to a certain characteristic of engine, and it takes some time." 

Gobert will get another chance at a test at Laguna in January.

Gobert also rode the R6 Supersport machine, but he is more concerned with the 750 at the moment. "Really, I'd like to just be able to concentrate on the Superbike. It would be better. It's kind of interfering a bit with the Superbike. But it's something I?m gonna have to do so I have to try and bear it."

"He's precise, he knows what he wants, and he wants to go fast," said Yamaha's Houseworth. "It's refreshing that he knows what he wants to go fast, and if it's not right, he'll wait until you get it right. We need more time with him. If you look at it, we've only had 200 laps with the guy between (the test at) Thunderhill and here, so we just need more time."

ENDS