Copyright 2002, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.



Nicky Hayden took the provisional Superbike pole and set a new lap record Friday afternoon at Road America, ahead of Jamie Hacking and Eric Bostrom.

A timing & scoring system problem led to the Friday afternoon Superbike qualifying session being halted with 14 minutes remaining.

Before the session was stopped and the system reset, it registered a number of bogus times, for example showing privateer Justin Blake doing a 2:10 on his Superstock bike.

When the session was stopped, the fastest rider on a Superstock bike was actually Chris Ulrich at 2:15.467, 10th fastest.

When the session restarted, Jake Zemke immediately went to the top of the monitors with a 2:02. His time was quickly removed and replaced with a 2:12.

The fastest rider at the time was actually Eric Bostrom at 2:09.830.

In the closing moments of the session, Hacking jumped to the top of the monitors, but Hayden’s final lap set the record and took provisional pole. Times follow:

1. Nicky Hayden, Honda, 2:09.051
2. Jamie Hacking, Suzuki, 2:09.800
3. Eric Bostrom, Kawasaki, 2:09.831
4. Miguel Duhamel, Honda, 2:09.863
5. Aaron Yates, Suzuki, 2:10.182
6. Mat Mladin, Suzuki, 2:10.352
7. Doug Chandler, Ducati, 2:10.401
8. Jake Zemke, Honda, 2:11.530
9. Pascal Picotte, Ducati, 2:12.067
10. Chris Ulrich, Suzuki, 2:15.467
11. Jimmy Moore, Suzuki, 2:15.993
12. Lee Acree, Suzuki, 2:16.065
13. Jason DiSalvo, Suzuki, 2:16.338
14. Adam Fergusson, Suzuki, 2:16.575
15. Andy Deatherage, Suzuki, 2:16.681
16. Craig Connell, Suzuki, 2:17.011
17. Brian Livengood, Suzuki, 2:17.373
18. Rich Conicelli, Suzuki, 2:17.376
19. Vincent Haskovec, Suzuki, 2:17.415
20. Alan Schmidt, Suzuki, 2:17.569
21. Larry Pegram, Suzuki, 2:17.747
22. Robert Jensen, Suzuki, 2:18.168
23. Scott Jensen, Suzuki, 2:18.427
24. John Dugan, Suzuki, 2:18.570
25. J.J. Roetlin, Suzuki, 2:19.051
26. Shawn Conrad, Suzuki, 2:19.054
27. Brian Parriott, Suzuki, 2:19.158
28. Ty Howard, Suzuki, 2:19.218
29. Shane Clarke, Suzuki, 2:19.242
30. Dave Ebben, Suzuki, 2:19.304
31. Dean Mizdal, Suzuki, 2:19.471
32. Justin Blake, Suzuki, 2:19.903
33. Chris Voelker, Honda, 2:19.959
34. Marco Martinez, Suzuki, 2:20.542
35. Jame Compton, Suzuki, 2:20.651
36. Jeff Purk, DDS, Suzuki, 2:20.934
37. Eric Spector, Suzuki, 2:20.943
38. Shane Prieto, Suzuki, 2:21.070
39. Randall Mennenga, Suzuki, 2:21.409
40. Doug Duane, Suzuki, 2:21.488
41. Giovanni Rojas, Suzuki, 2:21.612
42. Jason Knupp, Suzuki, 2:22.978
43. Anthony Ruggiero, Suzuki, 2:23.450
44. Steve Johnson, Aprilia, 2:23.861
45. Leo Venega, Ducati, 2:24.885
46. Roger Hendricks, Suzuki, 2:25.539
47. Eric Dooyema, Suzuki, 2:27.196
48. Mike Walsh, Suzuki, 2:28.732


More, from a press release issued by Mladin’s publicist:

MLADIN DOWN TO BUSINESS AT ROAD AMERICA

Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, USA – After being the fastest rider on the Road America circuit during the morning free practice session, Australian Mat
Mladin concluded the first qualifying session for this weekend’s Double-Header round of the AMA Chevy Trucks US Superbike Championship to be
sixth overall on the time sheets.

Fastest during qualifying was championship points leader Nicky Hayden who set a new lap record, eclipsing the previous mark held by Mladin with a
2-min 09.051-secs lap of the fast 6.44km (4.00 miles) Elkhart Lake circuit. Second fastest was Jamie Hacking (Blimpie Yoshimura Suzuki, 2:09.800) edging out last weekend’s race winner Eric Bostrom (Team Kawasaki, 2:09.831), with
Miguel DuHamel (American Honda) completing the provisional front row of the grid with a 2:09.863.

Row two is headed by the Blimpie Yoshimura Suzuki GSX-R750 mounted pair of Aaron Yates (2:10.182) and Mladin (2:10.352).

After the problems that have beset Mladin in recent rounds of the championship, he spent today concentrating on getting the best possible race
set up on his Suzuki for the two 16-lap races which are to follow over the next two days.

“Things have been going well so far for us today,” said Mladin. “I’m always a bit concerned when we are down a bit on our lap times, but we’ve
been concentrating on getting the bike right for the races. We didn’t use a soft qualifying tyre today that would have had us closer on the time sheet, instead we just concentrated on what we need for the races.

“It definitely won’t be easy around here. At the moment we are giving away something like 10 to 15kph on the lead twin cylinder Honda’s and Ducati’s in top speed, so it’s crucial that we get the bike set up and handling as well as it can so that we can get the best out of the bike and the tyres.”

Qualifying concludes on Saturday morning, with the first of the two 16-lap Superbike nationals taking place on Saturday afternoon.

Mladin, the three times AMA Superbike champion, heads into the weekend lying fourth overall on the points table, 72-points adrift of current leader Nicky Hayden.