Herrin Tops Infineon SportBikes

Henny Ray Abrams | May 15, 2009

Team Graves Yamaha’s Josh Herrin took his first provisional pole of the season with a late fast lap in Daytona SportBike qualifying at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, California.Herrin lapped the 2.32-mile, 12-turn road course in 1:39.543 mins. with just over a minute to go in the 40-minute session on a breezy, sunny afternoon in the wine country north of San Francisco. The time dropped Jason DiSalvo (M4 Suzuki) to second by . 411 secs. DiSalvo had topped basic qualifying twice this season, first at Auto Club Speedway and in the most recent race at Barber Motorsports Park. Herrin’s previous best was second at Auto Club Speedway.Factory Aprilia Millennium Technologies’ Chaz Davies posted his best basic qualifying effort of the season by coming third fastest and only .057 secs. off DiSalvo’s time. Erion Honda’s Jake Zemke, fresh off his first World Superbike outing in Monza, Italy, was a close fourth.Monster Energy Attack Kawasaki’s Jamie Hacking was only .026 secs. behind Zemke. Hacking will likely replace the injured Makoto Tamada on the factory Kawasaki in the U.S. round of the World Superbike Championship at Miller Motorsports Park in two weeks.Bobby Fong (Yam) was sixth in front of Team Graves Yamaha’s Tommy Aquino and Hacking’s teammate Roger Lee Hayden. Hayden was the last rider on the lead second.M4 Suzuki’s Martin Cardenas and Bazzaz Performance’s Steve Rapp (Yam) rounded out the top ten.Daytona SportBike Qualifying:1. Josh Herrin (Yamaha) 1:39.5432. Jason DiSalvo (Suzuki) 1:39.9543. Chaz Davies (Aprilia) 1:40.0114. Jake Zemke (Honda) 1:40.0715. Jamie Hacking (Kawasaki) 1:40.0976. Bobby Fong (Yamaha) 1:40.3427. Tommy Aquino (Yamaha) 1:40.4648. Roger Hayden (Kawasaki) 1:40.5169. Martin Cardenas (Suzuki) 1:40.55910. Steve Rapp (Yamaha) 1:40.568