American SuperBike 2001 - Round 12 - Pikes Peak - Final Qualifying
| American Honda rider Nicky
Hayden set the fastest time for tomorrow's
12th round of the AMA
championship at Pikes Peak International Raceway. Mladin had recorded an unprecedented eight consecutive pole positions this year, but it took a record breaking lap time of 53.776 seconds by Hayden to knock Mladin off what has been his customary position this year. The top three riders, Hayden, Mladin (53.875) and Team Kawasaki's Eric Bostrom (53.979) qualified under Mladin's existing lap record of 54.009 around the 2.12km (1.315miles) mountain circuit, the shortest on this years calendar. The top ten riders were within a second of Hayden's pole winning time. Mladin had set the fastest time in the opening qualifying session on Friday aboard his Team Yoshimura Suzuki GSX-R750 and was in the number one position until the closing moments of the final session when Hayden went faster. "Would have liked to have grabbed pole again, if not only for the championship point that is all important, but Nicky (Hayden) did a great job to grab his first ever pole position," said Mladin, the 1999 & 2000 American Superbike Champion. "We've got a few more things to try during the morning warm up tomorrow, but apart from that I think it's going to be a pretty close race. Going on the nature of the circuit and the lap times, I think there could be five or so guys who will right there during the race. It's going to be pretty close." Mladin holds a 20-point lead over Bostrom in the championship heading into tomorrow's 48-lap Superbike National and will be looking to extend his lead with two more rounds of the championship remaining.
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Late Braking News - SuperSport Qualifying
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