After being the fastest rider on the circuit during the morning’s opening practice session, Australia’s Mat Mladin was pushed back to second in the closing minutes of the first qualifying session for this weekend’s Double-Header AMA Chevy Trucks US Superbike Championship being held at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in Lexington, Ohio.

Mladin, the current points leader in this years 18-race championship, recorded a fastest time of 1-min 27.731-secs during the one-hour timed session before being edged off the top spot by Erion Honda’s Kurtis Roberts who set the quickest time of 1:27.383 with four minutes of the session remaining.

Third fastest was privateer rider Jason Pridmore (Attack Suzuki, 1:27.815) who split the Yoshimura Suzuki pair of Mladin and Aaron Yates, with Yates being the last rider to dip into the 1:27’s with a 1:27.972.

“”It was fairly difficult out there today,” said Mladin. “The track is definitely bumpier than when we were here last year and I think it will be very difficult, if not impossible, to get near my lap record time from a couple of years ago. The tyre situation is still critical. After having a few options to choose from two weeks ago at Laguna, we arrive here with a reduced selection. I set my time on what could be our race tyre. It was a bit warm this afternoon and with tomorrow’s final session being in the morning, track conditions may be a little cooler and offer something for us.”

Mladin arrives at Mid-Ohio holding a slender, yet important, six-point lead in the series over Team Kawasaki’s Eric Bostrom with 12-rounds now completed. This weekend, Bostrom is hampered by injuries that he received at the Laguna Seca round of the World Superbike Championship two weeks ago and opted out of today’s qualifying session in preference to tomorrow’s final session. Yates lies third in the championship, eleven points adrift of Mladin.

Qualifying for this weekend’s Double-Header Superbike round concludes tomorrow morning, before the first of two 26-lap AMA Superbike races takes place later in the afternoon.

Qualifying, Friday – AMA Chevy Trucks US Superbike Championship (Top 10)

1. Kurtis Roberts (Honda) 1m27.3

2. Mat Mladin (Suzuki) 1m27.7

3. Jason Pridmore (Suzuki) 1m27.8

4. Aaron Yates (Suzuki) 1m27.9

5. Miguel Duhamel (Honda) 1m28.3

6. Ben Bostrom (Honda) 1m28.6

7. Ben Spies (Suzuki) 1m28.7

8. Giovanni Bussei (Ducati) 1m29.2

9. Jordan Szoke (Suzuki) 1m29.3

10. Josh Hayes (Suzuki) 1m30.4