Australia’s Mat Mladin turned the fastest time in the opening practice session for this weekend’s double header round of the AMA Chevy Trucks US Superbike Championship at the Road America circuit in Wisconsin, before being forced to take a more conservative approach to the afternoon’s qualifying session after the heavens opened.

The dry opening practice session of the weekend saw Mladin consistently running in the 2-min 15-sec bracket before completing the session with the fastest time of 2:15.064 for the ultra fast 6.44km (4.00miles) Wisconsin circuit. His time was almost 0.7 seconds clear of American Honda’s Miguel DuHamel who posted a 2:15.724, with current championship points leader Aaron Yates third on the second Yoshimura Suzuki GSX-R1000.

“It was good this morning in the dry,” said Mladin. “The bike felt good straight out of the truck and I was very happy with how it ran. It would be nice if it remained dry for us over the weekend, but it sounds as though the forecast is for patchy conditions which will make things interesting, but we’ll see what happens tomorrow.”

The break between the opening practice session and qualifying saw rain begin to fall. Scattered light showers prevailed through to the Superbike qualifying session with the track remaining wet throughout.

Mladin adopted a conservative approach to the session, recognising that it was only Friday and there was plenty of work to be done for the remainder of the weekend. By the completion of the one-hour session, Mladin had set the seventh fastest time with a 2:46.795, over thirty seconds slower than his dry weather time from the morning.

“It wasn’t that wet out there, more that the surface is really slick when it is wet and doesn’t give a whole lot of grip,” added Mladin. “There are a few funny patches in some of the corners that make it really slick as well, so the wet times compared to the dry times aren’t that good. We just did some laps out there in the wet, got used to the track in those conditions and kept it upright. No need to be going hard out there today and crashing, a very straight forward approach given the conditions.”

Fastest rider during the wet qualifying session was fellow Australian Anthony Gobert (Ducati Austin) who set a best time of 2:42.075, followed by Larry Pegram (Dream Team Ducati) with a time of 2:43.657. Third fastest was Team Kawasaki’s Eric Bostrom with a 2:43.926, followed by Attack Suzuki’s Jason Pridmore with a 2:44.535.

Mladin heads into tomorrow’s opening 16-lap Superbike national lying third overall on the point’s table, ten adrift of teammate Yates (who was eleventh fastest today), with Eric Bostrom sandwiched between the Suzuki pair.

Qualifying concludes tomorrow morning, before the Superbike competitors take to the track later on Saturday afternoon, for their opening race, with the second scheduled for Sunday afternoon.

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

1. Anthony Gobert (Ducati Austin) 2:42.075 mins

2. Larry Pegram (Cream Team Ducati) 2:43.657

3. Eric Bostrom (Team Kawasaki) 2:43.925

4. Jason Pridmore (Attack Suzuki) 2:44.535

5. Josh Hayes (Attack Suzuki) 2:46.520

6. Jimmy Moore (Corona Extra Suzuki) 2:46.681

7. Mat Mladin (Yoshimura Suzuki) 2:46.795

8. Kurtis Roberts (Erion Honda) 2:47.605

9. Michael Barnes (Prieto Suzuki) 2:47.936

10. Miguel DuHamel (American Honda) 2:48.130

Aaron Gobert injured

Aaron Gobert led the Supersport timesheets and set the fastest Friday time. But unfortunately late in the day Aaron fell hard in the wet FX practice session.

Aaron broke two bones in his wrist, including the scaphoid. It does not appear that he will require surgery but instead will be put in a cast. He was knocked out for some minutes so he will be staying in hospital overnight under observation just to make sure everything is okay.

The force of the impact just about broke his R1 in half. The accident resulted when Aaron had started sliding on the exit of a turn and gave the R1 a little more throttle to continue the slide around the corner, but he hit a painted line and the rest is history. 

Aaron has sustained some incredible injuries over the years including a crash at Daytona last year which threatened to end his career for good. But the middle of the Gobert clan always finds the strength and determination to come back as soon as he possibly can. Nevertheless, this will be a big blow to Aaron who was really hitting full stride this season. But after recovering from some of the injuries he has received before, this will be small fry, we are sure he will be back in action soon.

Pictorial - Wallpaper from Friday practice at Pikes Peak

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