DiSalvo Gets Third Pole in Four Tries

Henny Ray Abrams | June 4, 2011

ELKHART LAKE, WI, JUNE 4 – Latus Motors Racing’s Jason DiSalvo (Duc) took his third pole in a row on a day of changing conditions at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin.The wind that was in the rider’s faces yesterday was now at their backs, which meant adjustments had to be made at the end of the track’s three sixth gear straightaways. And the day was warmer than Friday, which had been chilly and more blustery.DiSalvo wasn’t able to improve on his Friday time, but no one challenged him in the red flag-shortened session, so he could add the Road America pole to the ones he’d earlier earned at Infineon Raceway and Miller Motorsports Park.The championship leader was hopeful of eclipsing his track record pole time of 2:20.138 mins. from 2009, but said that in these conditions it wasn’t possible.

“Yeah, it seemed like with the wind kind of just changing directions completely today there was a couple places around the track where maybe it helped hold you in a corner a little bit, where today it was pushing you out on that corner,” he said. “Places where it was pushing you in on the brakes, now you had a headwind on the brakes. One of the biggest places, I think, was turn one, because the headwind was so big coming over the top of the hill there and running down into turn one that now today not having that headwind to kind of rely on to help stop you, I almost had to adjust my brake marker slightly and be a little bit more cautious going in there on the brakes.”The top four riders were covered by a second, but DiSalvo said that he didn’t think he could break away during this afternoon’s 13-lap race. He thought the riders who were better on used tires, second fastest Josh Herrin (Monster Energy Graves Yamaha) and fourth fastest Danny Eslick (Geico Powersports/Richie Morris Racing Suzuki), would be there at the end. Third fastest PJ Jacobsen (Celtic Racing/Fast by Ferracci Ducati) is a dirt tracker who’s also comfortable on used tires.The bigger question was last lap strategy. Road America has one of the most dramatic final sequences on the calendar, with the final turn 14 right-hander feeding onto the ramp up the front straight that crests at the finish line. Races are routinely decided by draft passes at the line, which was something DiSalvo was thinking about.”I think if anybody could afford to sit back, it’s us, because I think we’ve got the horsepower to take somebody coming to the line,” he began, “but at the same time, if anybody can afford to lead off the last corner I think it’s us, because we’ll be one of the hardest to pass coming to the line on the last lap.”

Daytona SportBike Qualifying:

 1. Jason DiSalvo (Ducati) 2:20.356

2. Josh Herrin (Yamaha) 2:20.543

3. PJ Jacobsen (Ducati) 2:20.831

4. Danny Eslick (Suzuki) 2:21.346

5. Cameron Beaubier (Yamaha) 2:21.413

6. Dane Westby (Suzuki) 2:21.555

7. Tommy Aquino (Yamaha) 2:21.920

8. Cory West (Suzuki) 2:21.953

9. Taylor Knapp (Suzuki) 2:21.985

10. Jake Holden (Ducati) 2:22.010

 

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.