DiSalvo Takes Daytona SportBike Pole at Infineon Raceway
Henny Ray Abrams | May 14, 2011
SONOMA, CA, MAY 14 – Latus Motors Racing’s Jason DiSalvo (Duc) rebounded from being disqualified in Friday Daytona SportBike qualifying to take the pole for this weekend’s two races at Infineon Raceway in the wine country north of San Francisco.DiSalvo was disqualified for a fuel discrepancy, the result of a problem with the control Sunoco fuel. DiSalvo said the fuel that was out of compliance came from a fresh drum that went into his Ducati 848EVO before Friday qualifying. Today he got off to a slow start and was languishing down in 13th when he shot to the top with just less than eight minutes remaining in the 20-minute session, held on a cool, overcast morning. He would lower his time of 1:40.107 mins. more than once, and on his final lap of the 2.32-mile rolling road course would set the pole time of 1:39.257 mins. The time was well off Tommy Aquino’s pole time of 1:38.439 from last year.Monster Energy Graves Yamaha’s Josh Herrin qualified second best with his final lap of 1:39.383 mins.
Herrin will serve his one race suspension by sitting out today’s Daytona SportBike race. Herrin was suspended because of rough riding on the run to the flag in the Daytona 200.Provisional pole-setter Jake Holden (Duc) qualified third fastest on the strength of his Friday time of 1:39.444 mins. Holden was at the top of the time sheets when DiSalvo took him down, then he fell one more spot. But with Herrin sitting out today’s race, Holden will start second on the grid.Geico Powersports/Richie Morris Racing’s Danny Eslick (Suz) sits at the end of the front row as he continues to set up a newer Suzuki GSX-R600. Eslick was second with half the session remaining, then got dropped by both DiSalvo and Herrin. His Friday time was also better than today’s.The second row is Tommy Aquino (Yam), Cory West (Suz), Taylor Knapp (Suz), and PJ Jacobsen (Duc).
Daytona SportBike Qualifying:
1. Jason DiSalvo (Ducati) 1:39.257
2. Josh Herrin (Yamaha) 1:39.383
3. Jake Holden (Ducati) 1:39.444
4. Danny Eslick (Suzuki) 1:40.182
5. Tommy Aquino (Yamaha) 1:40.323
6. Cory West (Suzuki) 1:40.463
7. Taylor Knapp (Suzuki) 1:40.475
8. PJ Jacobsen (Ducati) 1:40.504
9. Cameron Beaubier (Yamaha) 1:40.578
10. Dane Westby (Suzuki) 1:40.767
Henny Ray Abrams | Contributing Editor
Abrams is the longest-serving contributor at Cycle News. Over the course of his 35-some years of writing and shooting photos, he’s covered events from MotoGP to the Motocross World Championship - and everything in between.
