From a press release issued by Mat Mladin Motorsports:

MLADIN HEADS SUPERBIKE QUALIFYING AT PIKES PEAK

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 degrees C (135 degrees 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.



More, from a press release issued by Team Valvoline EMGO Suzuki:

Team Valvoline EMGO Suzuki’s Steve Rapp had a successful first day at Pikes Peak International Raceway Friday, putting his GSX-R1000 on the front row for Saturday’s Formula Xtreme race. Rapp successfully negotiated the venue’s power-sapping altitude and the day’s sweltering conditions to qualify his machine fourth in class with a time of 55.311 .

Rapp is keen to improve upon his current fifth-place standing in the class points race this weekend. The 30-year-old Californian’s hard riding style is well suited to the tight 1.3-mile mountainside circuit, a fact evidenced by a previous top-five Superbike finish at the track to his credit.

“I like the track a lot and have had some good results here in the past. I’m looking forward to the race,” Rapp said of his day in the sweltering heat. “We had a just a little bit trouble at the end of qualifying and never got to use a soft tire,” Rapp said. “Other than that it was really good.”

Rapp is also taking on additional duties this weekend subbing for injured teammate Matt Furtek in the Superstock class. It didn’t take Rapp long to get back into the Superstock groove, running fourth in the morning’s practice session.

Chris Ulrich spent his day dialing in his Valvoline EMGO Suzuki Superstock and Formula Xtreme race machines. The Formula Xtreme rookie was unable to find ideal solutions on Friday but expects to improve throughout the weekend.

“We made forward progress, but we just didn’t move forward as fast as I would like,” Ulrich said after the day’s action had concluded. “We’re just going to keep our heads down, make some changes, and see what we can do.”

Next, Team Valvoline EMGO Suzuki will contest the Formula Xtreme race on Saturday and the Superstock race on Sunday.