Yoshimura Suzuki’s Mat Mladin earned the provisional AMA Superbike pole position during qualifying Friday at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, California. Riding his race-compound Dunlop-shod GSX-R1000, Mladin turned a time of 1:36.019, undercutting his own lap record of 1:36.916 and beating the next-fastest time in the session, a 1:37.116 by teammate Aaron Yates, by 1.1 seconds “Things went pretty well for us,” Mladin told reporters. “I’m really happy with the new GSX-R1000. The bike’s unbelievable. It’s certainly making our life a lot easier this year, and we’re happy about it.” “The track was better this afternoon than it was this morning,” said Yates. “We went back with my crew and made a couple of changes. The GSX-R1000 was really getting around here really good at Infineon. We’re just trying to get closer to my teammate. Looking forward to a good race tomorrow.” “We didn’t even treat today as qualifying,” said California Speedway race one winner Ben Spies, who qualified third with a time of 1:37.605. “We were just checking out the set-up for the bike and the tires. We did pretty well. Tomorrow we’ll treat as qualifying, and we’ll go out and get some good times.” Parts Unlimited Ducati Austin’s Neil Hodgson was fourth-quick with a time of 1:37.787 on his factory 999F05 Superbike. Hodgson is being supported at Infineon Raceway by World Superbike Team Coordinator Davide Tardozzi and Technical Director Ernesto Marinelli. Attack Kawasaki Josh Hayes was fifth-fastest with a lap of 1:38.354 on his factory-supported ZX-10R Superbike, even though it lost its chain during the session when Hayes jumped the curb outside of turn one. Hodgson’s teammate Eric Bostrom’s was sixth-quick with a 1:38.425 in spite of suffering bike troubles of his own during the session. Michael Jordan Motorsports Suzuki’s Steve Rapp put in another strong Superbike qualifying effort on his Superstock-spec GSX-R1000, seventh-fastest with a 1:38.434 around his hometrack. Like Hayes, Miguel Duhamel jumped the curb outside of turn one and lost his drive chain late in the session. He finished eighth with a 1:38.534. Friday’s Provisional AMA Superbike Qualifying Results: 1. Mat Mladin, Suzuki, 1:36.019 2. Aaron Yates, Suzuki, 1:37.116 3. Ben Spies, Suzuki, 1:37.605 4. Neil Hodgson, Ducati, 1:37.787 5. Josh Hayes, Kawasaki, 1:38.354 6. Eric Bostrom, Ducati, 1:38.425 7. Steve Rapp, Suzuki, 1:38.434 8. Miguel Duhamel, Honda, 1:38.534 9. Jake Zemke, Honda, 1:39.130 10. Vincent Haskovec, Suzuki, 1:39.173 11. Larry Pegram, Honda, 1:39.418 12. John Haner, Suzuki, 1:39.755 13. Jake Holden, Suzuki, 1:39.988 14. Eric Wood, Suzuki, 1:40.408 15. Marty Craggill, Suzuki, 1:40.446 16. Scott Jensen, Suzuki, 1:40.601 17. Brent George, Suzuki, 1:40.899 18. Kurtis Roberts, Honda, 1:41.146 19. Lee Acree, Suzuki, 1:41.363 20. Cory West, Suzuki, 1:41.369 21. Dave Stanton, Suzuki, 1:41.504 22. Jeremy Toye, Honda, 1:41.596 23. Clint McBain, Suzuki, 1:41.644 24. Jimmy Moore, Suzuki, 1:41.721 25. J.J. Roetlin, Suzuki, 1:41.754 26. Cory Call, Kawasaki, 1:41.843 27. Alan Schmidt, Suzuki, 1:41.895 28. Kevin Lacombe, Suzuki, 1:41.991 29. Eric Gulbransen, Ducati, 1:42.294 30. Jeff Tigert, Honda, 1:42.314 31. Dean Mizdal, Suzuki, 1:42.440 32. Mike Sullivan, Suzuki, 1:42.718 33. David Bell, Suzuki, 1:42.795 34. Matt Lynn, Suzuki, 1:42.957 35. Michael Ernest, Suzuki, 1:43.010 36. Mark Miller, Suzuki, 1:43.245 37. Harley Barnes, Suzuki, 1:43.286 38. Tony Meiring, Suzuki, 1:43.385 39. Brien Whitlock, Suzuki, 1:43.402 40. James Kerker, Honda, 1:43.514 41. Reno Karimian, Suzuki, 1:43.870 42. C.R. Gittere, Suzuki, 1:43.999 43. Akira Tamitsuji, Suzuki, 1:44.037 44. Nicky Moore, Yamaha, 1:44.718 45. Corey Sarros, Suzuki, 1:44.792 46. John Scott Wilson, Suzuki, 1:44.889 47. Christopher Ancien, Suzuki, 1:45.224 48. Mark Simon, Suzuki, 1:45.380 49. David Guy, Kawasaki, 1:45.640 50. Thomas Montano, Ducati, 1:45.646 51. Peter Holzinger, Suzuki, 1:45.793 52. James King, Suzuki, 1:46.517 More, from a press release issued by Infineon Raceway: Mladin Takes Provisional Pole for Kawasaki AMA Superbike Showdown SONOMA, Calif. (IMMEDIATE RELEASE) “” Yoshimura Suzuki’s Mat Mladin continued his near-perfect season on Friday at Infineon Raceway by winning the provisional pole for this weekend’s Kawasaki AMA Superbike Showdown, presented by Supercuts. Mladin, a five-time AMA Superbike champion, turned the 12-turn, 2.22-mile road course in 1 minute, 36.019 seconds. The time was a new track record, bettering the prior mark of 1:36.916 set by Mladin in 2004. Aaron Yates (Yoshimura Suzuki) was second at 1:37.116, with Ben Spies (Yoshimura Suzuki) third at 1:37.605. Mladin, a four-time Superbike winner at Infineon Raceway, continued his magical season. He has captured every pole (three) and has won all but one Superbike main event in 2005. He entered this weekend’s event second in points to teammate Spies (155-152). “Things went pretty well for us,” said Mladin. “I’m really happy with the GSX-R1000. The bike’s unbelievable. It’s certainly making our life a lot easier this year, and we’re happy about it.” Honda’s Jake Zemke, meanwhile, captured the pole in the Lockhart-Phillips USA Formula Xtreme class with a run of 1:38.791 in qualifying. It was Zemke’s second-career pole at Infineon Raceway and his second pole of the 2005 season. He is looking for his first-ever victory at Infineon Raceway. Zemke holds a two-point lead over teammate Miguel Duhamel (105-103) for the top spot in Formula Xtreme after three events. Duhamel qualified second on Friday (1:38.791), with Attack Kawasaki’s Ben Attard third (1:38.995). Action continues on Saturday with final qualifying for the Kawasaki AMA Superbike Showdown, followed by the 28-lap main event (3:50 p.m.). The 17-lap Lockhart-Phillips USA Formula Xtreme feature will also take place on Saturday (4:50 p.m.). More, from a press release issued by Parts Unlimited Ducati Austin: HODGSON ON THE PROVISIONAL FRONT ROW AT INFINEON Sonoma, CA (May 13) — Parts Unlimited Ducati Austin’s Neil Hodgson qualified fourth at Infineon Raceway on Friday, good for the provisional front row of the grid at the California track located in the wine country of Sonoma. Hodgson’s best lap on his Ducati 999 was 1:37.787. Eric Bostrom earned sixth on the day with a time of 1:38.425. “As far as the circuit goes, I like the place. We tested here. It’s very physical and there aren’t many straights. If we just improve the bike a little and find some more change of direction, we’ll be in good shape,” said the 2003 World Superbike champion. Hodgson said he liked the combination of settings and tires much better in the qualifying session than he did morning practice at the very tight 12-turn track. “This morning it was terrible but we made some improvements this afternoon. We found a direction for tomorrow. We’ll come out fighting.” Neil said he already had chosen a race tire for Saturday’s 28-lap race, the first of two on the weekend. Neil’s teammate Eric Bostrom had an unlucky qualifying session on Friday the 13th. Eric said a small issue with the bike that proved difficult to diagnose consumed most of the 40-minute session. “The bike seems by far the best ever, but we’ve had some small, little problems that held us back today,” said Bostrom. “I didn’t really get the number of laps I would have liked. We spent some time going in and out of the pits, but at the end of the session we had to put in a good lap for qualifying even though we didn’t have everything completely sorted. We put on a softer race tire and I wasn’t very comfortable and didn’t run it into the corners as much as I normally would. Still, the lap time was pretty good,” said Eric. “That’s the light at the end of the tunnel. The bike can do decent lap times. We could be really fast tomorrow morning or we could be out in left field.” Tomorrow’s Superbike race begins at 3:50 PM local time.