DiSalvo Fast at Road America

Henny Ray Abrams | June 3, 2011

ELKHART LAKE, WI, JUNE 3 – Latus Motors Racing’s Jason DiSalvo (Duc) continued his run at the top of the charts by earning the provisional Daytona SportBike pole on a cool, blustery day at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin.The DSB championship leader laid down an early marker and let the others come at him. They came, but not in numbers and not sufficiently quickly to deny DiSalvo the overnight pole and the front-runner status for the “actual” pole for the weekend’s two races.

Asked why he did so many laps, he said the team was “just trying to keep the mileage low on our race motors.”He continued. “I feel pretty comfortable for tomorrow. We’ve got a little bit more speed. We can hopefully dip down into the 19’s if the weather cooperates in the morning and secure the actual pole position instead of just provisional.”Last weekend at Miller Motorsports Park, DiSalvo said he was looking forward to Road America. He thought the Ducati 848EVO would be a good fit for the track, especially on the ramp leading to start-finish and down the long front straight.”It seems like we’ve got really good power, obviously,” he said after setting the fast lap of 2:20.356 mins., “so everything’s going to plan, so far.”DiSalvo missed last year’s Road America race. At the time, he was having a miserable year in World Supersport and was contemplating his imminent withdrawal from the World Supersport championship. DiSalvo rode a Triumph for part of last year’s WSS series, but the Ducati is a much more competitive motorcycle in its various iterations. DiSalvo rode the 2011 848EVO today and “if things go according to plan I’ll be on that bike for the remainder of the weekend.”DiSalvo holds the track record of 2:20.138 mins. from 2009, the last year he raced here, and he thinks the record’s vulnerable.”This is, I think, one of the only places where the guys didn’t go faster last year, so that was cool to see,” he said. Of the 2009 race, he added, “Yeah we were pushing each other really hard that weekend. I want to beat it tomorrow though.”Monster Energy Graves Yamaha’s Josh Herrin chipped away at DiSalvo’s cushion to finish behind by .187 sec.Danny Eslick rode the Geico Powersports/Richie Morris Racing Suzuki to the third fastest time, just short of a second slower than DiSalvo. Celtic Racing/Fast by Ferracci Ducati’s PJ Jacobsen, who came second to Herrin in an epic battle at MMP, is a very close fourth and a little over a second off the pace.

Daytona SportBike Qualifying:

1. Jason DiSalvo (Ducati) 2:20.356

2. Josh Herrin (Yamaha) 2:20.543

3. Danny Eslick (Suzuki) 2:21.346

4. PJ Jacobsen (Ducati) 2:21.381

5. Dane Westby (Suzuki) 2:21.555

6. Tommy Aquino (Yamaha) 2:21.920

7. Cory West (Suzuki) 2:21.953

8. Cameron Beaubier (Yamaha) 2:21.959

9. Jake Holden (Ducati) 2:22.010

10. Taylor Knapp (Suzuki) 2:22.277

 

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.