American Superbike 2003 - Pikes Peak - Friday Qualifying and practice

In oppressively hot conditions, Australia’s Mat Mladin has set the fastest lap time during today’s opening qualifying session for round eight of the AMA Chevy Trucks US Superbike Championship being held Pikes Peak International Raceway in Colorado.

Mladin turned a time of 53.780 seconds around the short but demanding Colorado circuit aboard his Yoshimura Suzuki GSX-R1000, holding an advantage of almost a full second over fellow Australian Anthony Gobert (Austin Ducati) who posted a best time of 54.711 secs.

With track surface temperature rising above 60°C (135°F) during today’s opening qualifying session, finding a machine set up that would suit the hot conditions and allow for the best possible tyre wear became of paramount importance. Conditions are expected to cool over the weekend, but with Sunday’s Superbike national scheduled for 48 laps, the high altitudes of Pikes Peak mixed with the hot conditions will make for a very demanding race.

“We concentrated a lot on getting a race set up today,” said Mladin. “Yes, it was good to get a fast time in, but with the lap distance being so short around here, it is important to get a comfortable feel with it. Tyre wear is an issue here, so we do need to do a lot of work with matching the chassis to the tyres that will get us through the 48-lap distance. We also tend to get caught behind a lot of backmarkers around here, but today the traffic out on the track was quite good. If it remains like that over the next two days, we should get a good race in on Sunday.”

Third fastest was Mladin’s teammate and current championship points leader Aaron Yates who set a time of 54.913 who held a half second advantage over Erion Honda’s Kurtis Roberts (55.448) who completes the provisional front row of the grid.

Mladin arrives at this weekend’s round trailing Yates by two points in the championship, but with five wins from seven races completed this season he has proven to be the dominant rider of the series. The only blemish to his season so far has been a tyre failure at round six of the championship at Road Atlanta which forced him out of the race and subsequently lost his points advantage over Yates.

Qualifying continues tomorrow, with a final one-hour session, followed by Sunday’s 48-lap Superbike race.

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

Mat Mladin (Yoshimura Suzuki) 53.780
Anthony Gobert (Ducati Austin) 54.711
Aaron Yates (Yoshimura Suzuki) 54.913
Kurtis Roberts 55.448
Miguel Duhamel 55.595
Ben Bostrom 55.617
Larry Pegram 55.933
Jason Pridmore 55.959
Eric Bostrom 56.188
Josh Hayes 56.374

NB: The following times were provided by Road Racing World as part of our content sharing agreement.

Supersport:
1. Damon Buckmaster, Yamaha, 56.722
2. Aaron Gobert, Yamaha, 56.825
3. Jamie Hacking, Yamaha, 57.006
4. Ben Spies, Suzuki, 57.028
5. Jason DiSalvo, Yamaha, 57.066
6. Pascal Picotte, Yamaha, 57.110
7. Tony Meiring, Kawasaki, 57.156
8. Miguel Duhamel, Honda, 57.217
9. Ty Howard, Honda, 57.217
10. Tommy Hayden, Kawasaki, 57.243
11. Doug Chandler, Honda, 57.561
12. Roger Lee Hayden, Honda, 57.583
13. Jake Zemke, Honda, 57.612
14. Craig Connell, Honda, 57.725
15. Thad Halsmer, Yamaha, 57.732
16. Alex Gobert, Honda, 57.749
17. Martin Craggill, Honda, 57.880
18. Chris Peris, Honda, 57.889
19. Jason Curtis, Honda, 58.312
20. Jamie Stauffer, Suzuki, 58.501

Formula Xtreme:
1. Jake Zemke, Honda, 55.315
2. Ben Spies, Suzuki, 55.558
3. Doug Chandler, Honda, 55.714
4. Adam Fergusson, Suzuki, 55.748
5. Damon Buckmaster, Yamaha, 55.904
6. Ty Howard, Honda, 56.052
7. Steve Rapp, Suzuki, 56.083
8. Jamie Hacking, Yamaha, 56.187
9. Marty Craggill, Honda, 56.263
10. Aaron Gobert, Yamaha, 56.863
11. Jack Pfeifer, Suzuki, 56.974
12. Geoff May, Suzuki, 57.338
13. Roger Lee Hayden Honda, 57.494
14. Craig Connell, Honda, 57.664
15. Jimmy Moore, Suzuki, 57.886
16. Jeff Tigert, Suzuki, 57.902
17. Jason Curtis, Honda, 57.976
18. Rich Deeming, Suzuki, 58.037
19. Shane Turpin, Yamaha, 58.073
20. Josh Graham, Suzuki, 58.478

Superstock:
1. Adam Fergusson, Suzuki GSX-R750, 56.593
2. Tommy Hayden, Kawasaki ZX-6R, 56.765
3. Vincent Haskovec, Suzuki GSX-R750, 56.806
4. Josh Hayes, Suzuki GSX-R750, 56.824
5. Jason DiSalvo, Yamaha YZF-R6, 56.849
6. Alex Gobert, Honda CBR600RR, 56.886
7. Chris Caylor, Suzuki GSX-R750, 57.007
8. Jake Holden, Suzuki GSX-R750, 57.014
9. Aaron Gobert, Yamaha YZF-R6, 57.103
10. Tony Meiring, Kawasaki ZX-6R, 57.319
11. Brian Stokes, Suzuki GSX-R750, 57.552
12. Jimmy Moore, Suzuki GSX-R750, 57.581
13. Mike Ciccotto, Suzuki GSX-R750, 57.655
14. John Haner, Suzuki GSX-R750, 57.742
15. Jamie Stauffer, Suzuki GSX-R600, 57.811
16. Steve Rapp, Suzuki GSX-R750, 57.996
17. Jordan Szoke, Suzuki GSX-R750, 58.017
18. Thad Halsmer, Yamaha YZF-R6, 58.669
19. John Dugan, Suzuki GSX-R750, 58.239
20. Hawk Mazzotta, Suzuki GSX-R750, 58.789

250cc Grand Prix:
1. Chuck Sorensen, Aprilia, 56.662
2. Rich Oliver, Yamaha, 56.705
3. Colin Jensen, Aprilia, 59.146
4. Simon Turner, TSR Honda, 59.159
5. Perry Melneciuc, Yamaha, 59.247
6. Chris Pyles, Honda, 59.519
7. Ed Sorbo, Yamaha, 59.636
8. Ed Marchini, Yamaha, 59.642
9. Sandy Noce, Yamaha, 59.898
10. Greg Esser, Honda, 1:00.635
11. T. Russell Strobridge, Yamaha, 1:00.890
12. Darren Fulce, Yamaha, 1:01.211
13. John France, Honda, 1:01.253
14. Sean McNew, Honda, 1:01.781
15. Shawn Murray, Honda, 1:02.130
16. Sean Wray, Yamaha, 1:02.668
17. David Gallant, Yamaha, 1:02.678
18. Stephen Bowline, Honda, 1:02.708
19. M. Ben Welch, Yamaha, 1:03.109
20. Glen Christianson, Yamaha, 1:03.344