Rockstar Suzuki's Mat Mladin racks up another pole position at Laguna.
Rockstar Makita Suzuki's Mat Mladin will start Sunday’s 23-lap American Superbike from pole position at
Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca. Mladin narrowly beat out teammate Blake Young for late in Saturday afternoon’s 30-minute qualifying session.
“We had a motor let go yesterday and oil got all over one of our tires,” said Young. “That meant that we only had one rear tire to use during qualifying so that’s why we’re behind a bit. It’s still good though. We’re on the front row so we should have a shot at it for tomorrow.”
Next was the final Rockstar Suzuki ridden by Tommy Hayden with Foremost Pegram racing’s Larry Pegram getting the final front row spot.
"Our bike's working pretty good," said Pegram. "Obviously we've got some momentum after our win at Elkhart but we've had to completely change the bike as this track is way different. We're also struggling with grip. Plus it's hard to get a clean lap as there is a lot of traffic out there."
M4 Suzuki’s Martin Cardenas grabbed pole position courtesy of his 1:27.586 lap time set during Daytona SportBike qualifying. His time, which he set late in the session was nearly a half a second faster than Yamaha’s Ben Bostrom which is astounding considering second through fifteenth position was separated by one second.
Third fastest was Bostrom’s teammate Josh Hayes followed by Josh Herrin and M4 Suzuki’s Jason DiSalvo. In fact all three of those riders were only separated by a few hundredths of a second. Noticeably absent up front is the Geico
Buell 1125Rs ridden by Danny Eslick and Michael Barnes.
The Geico Buell's are struggling with rear tire traction problems at Laguna.
“It’s a tight group,” said Barnes in reference to how close the gap is between the riders. “We’re having some problems hooking up [tire] out of the corner. The tire will spin then it will hook up and then it will get back into the power and spin again.”
American Superbike Qualifying Results:
1. Mat Mladin -
Suzuki GSX-R1000 - 1:24.592
2. Blake Young - Suzuki GSX-R1000 - 1:24.936
3. Tommy Hayden - Suzuki GSX-R1000 - 1:25.075
4. Larry Pegram - Ducati 1098R - 1:25.199
5. Josh Hayes -
Yamaha YZF-R1 - 1:25.276
6. Aaron Yates - Suzuki GSX-R1000 - 1:25.338
7. Neil Hodgson -
Honda CBR1000RR - 1:25.530
8. Ben Bostrom - Yamaha YZF-R1 - 1:25.895
9. Geoff May - Suzuki GSX-R1000 - 1:25.949
10. Taylor Knapp - Suzuki GSX-R1000 - 1:26.112
Daytona SportBike Qualifying Results:
1. Martin Cardenas - Suzuki GSX-R600 - 1:27.586
2. Ben Bostrom - Yamaha YZF-R6 - 1:28.035
3. Josh Hayes - Yamaha YZF-R6 - 1:28.123
4. Josh Herrin - Yamaha YZF-R6 - 1:28.144
5. Jason DiSalvo - Suzuki GSX-R600 - 1:28.170
6. Chaz Davies - Aprilia RSV1000R - 1:28.176
7. Tommy Aquino - Yamaha YZF-R6 - 1:28.276
8. Danny Eslick - Buell 1125R – 1:28.279
9. Jake Zemke - Honda CBR600RR - 1:28.535
10. Bobby Fong - Yamaha YZF-R6 - 1:28.663
