Yoshimura Suzuki’s Mat Mladin set pole position for Saturday’s opening AMA Superbike Championship race in Daytona, Florida today with team mate Ben Spies a close second.

Reigning Champion Mladin put in a time of 1:37.075 on his GSX-R1000 – a faster time than the six-time Champion did last year at the same event – with Spies less than half-a-second behind.

Third Yoshimura team rider Aaron Yates recorded the ninth fastest time and will lead the all-Suzuki third-row which includes Roberto Pietri, Eric Wood and Jake Holden.

Daytona AMA Superbike Qualifying (Thursday):
1 Mat Mladin (Yoshimura Suzuki) 1:37.075,
2 Ben Spies (Yoshimura Suzuki) 1:37.559,
3 Ben Bostrom (Ducati) 1:38.012,
4 Miguel Duhamel (Honda) 1:38.337,
5 Jake Zemke (Honda) 1:38.398,
6 Neil Hodgson (Ducati) 1:38.491,
7 Roger Lee Hayden (Kawasaki) 1:38.573,
8 Tommy Hayden (Kawasaki) 1:38.904,
9 Aaron Yates (Yoshimura Suzuki) 1:39.429,
10 Jake Holden (Suzuki) 1:40.470.