Mladin manhandled his white and blue Suzuki flicking the bike through the turns in abrupt and aggressive moves. He cajoled his bike to a new lap record of 1:09.561, beating his own mark of 1:09. 947 set last year. Suzuki team-mate Aaron Yates, Friday’s fastest qualifier, was the other rider able to lap under the old record with a time of 1:09.893.

“The lap that I set the track record was baulked by Eric Bostrom and Larry Pegram,” claimed Mladin, who now has 20-career AMA SuperBike poles, the record for the series.. “Other than that it went pretty well. I tried another for another one (lap) the second-fast lap on the same tire I did the same lap time and that was the best I could do.”

The Kawasakis of Eric Bostrom and Doug Chandler will join the Suzukis on the front row.