SUZUKI 1-2-3 IN FONTANA QUALIFYING
30 April 2005 - Suzuki Racing

Mat Mladin led a Yoshimura Suzuki sweep of the top three spots in Friday Superbike qualifying at California Speedway for round three of the AMA Superbike Championship.

Mladin took the provisional pole by lowering his own lap record on the 2.3-mile road course to 1:24.184 minutes, well under last year''s pole time of 1:24.759 and Mladin put the improvement to a change in the track and new Dunlop tyres.

''It''s got to be half a second quicker, I would say,'' he said of the track change, which widened and softened the chicane on the back straight, making for a much faster transition and exit.

''This area here was really bothering me,'' said Honda''s Miguel Duhamel, who was instrumental in getting the change made. ''I really thought it was a safety issue.''

As for the tyres, Mladin said this year''s Dunlops have allowed him to race at 100% from start to finish, rather than at 90%, as he''d been forced to do for some time.

''This year, there''s certainly a higher confidence from Dunlop for us and you can just give it to it for the whole race and grip''s good and the tyre just holds up a lot better than it ever has.''

Mladin was 0.143 seconds faster than team mate Aaron Yates, whose last lap was his best, with Ben Spies 0.531 off the pole time. Asked whether he thought that meant the racing would be closer, Mladin said, ''I''ve seen a lot of soft tyres going in at the end, so we''ll see what happens in the race.''

The Ducati Austin team was fourth and fifth, respectively, Eric Bostrom leading team mate Neil Hodgson, as he had in their final Fontana test.

American Hondas were next, with Miguel Duhamel sixth - despite a first turn crash - followed by team mate Jake Zemke.

Fontana Qualifying:

1. Mat Mladin (Suzuki) 1:24.184
2. Aaron Yates (Suzuki) 1:24.327
3. Ben Spies (Suzuki) 1:24.715
4. Eric Bostrom (Ducati) 1:24.938
5. Neil Hodgson (Ducati) 1:25.624
6. Miguel Duhamel (Honda) 1:25.624
7. Jake Zemke (Honda) 1:26.002
8. Josh Hayes (Kawasaki) 1:26.559
9. Steve Rapp (Suzuki) 1:26.919
10. Vincent Haskovec (Suzuki) 1:16.994

Information courtesy of: www.cyclenews.com.

www.suzuki-racing.com

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