DiSalvo Takes SportBike Pole

Paul Carruthers | July 23, 2011

MONTEREY, CA, JULY 23 – Jason DiSalvo earned his fourth pole position of the season today at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, the Latus Motors Racing Ducati rider besting both the men he’s chasing in the now-shortened Daytona SportBike Series.

“We kind of planned ahead a little bit coming here,” DiSalvo said earning pole position with his 1:28.449. “We had an idea of what was going to work – even though we’d never been here on the Ducati. Just looking at the characteristicsof this track versus some other tracks. We had a pretty good idea of some of the settings we were going to run. They all worked pretty good so far. It’s been a pretty good weekend. It’s like everything we do either works out really well or gives us really good information feedback on what to do next. We made quite a few changes this weekend, but it’s been a really good progression and overall it’s shaping up to be a good race, I think.”

Monster Energy Graves Yamaha’s Josh Herrin ended up second, despite losing the front end and crashing out of the session late. Herrin ended up with a 1:28.650.

Filling the front row (unlike the rest of the rounds, the Laguna grid will use the MotoGP format of three-rider rows rather than the traditional four-rider rows) for tomorrow’s race will be RMR Geico Suzuki’s Danny Eslick, the championship leader lapping at a best of 1:28.687.

Row two will be filled led by Jake Holden Racing’s Cameron Beaubier, the privateer Yamaha rider out-qualifying Yamaha Extended Services/Pat Clark Motorsports Yamaha’s Tommy Aquino. Row two will be filled by Jake Holden Racing Ducati’s Jake Holden.

Since he’s from New York, you wouldn’t think DiSalvo would have many laps around Laguna Seca. And he says missing last year’s race here isn’t even an issue.

“I’ve actually gotten a lot of experience around here, a lot of laps,” DiSalvo said. “I used to teach a race school here. I’ve got quite a few laps around this place and I’ve played around with a lot of things – no pressure… teaching a school and you can kind of think outside the box. I’ve been around here a time or two.”

He also said the team came into the race with a plan and they’ve executed it perfectly.

“We kind of planned ahead a little bit coming here,” DiSalvo said. “We had an idea of what was going to work – even though we’d never been here on the Ducati. Just looking at the characteristic of this track versus some other tracks. We had a pretty good idea of some of the settings we were going to run. They all worked pretty good so far. It’s been a pretty good weekend. It’s like everything we do either works out really well or gives us really good information feedback on what to do next. We made quite a few changes this weekend, but it’s been a really good progression and overall it’s shaping up to be a good race, I think.”

SportBike Qualifying
1. Jason DiSalvo (Ducati) 1:28.449
2. Josh Herrin (Yamaha) 1:28.650
3. Danny Eslick (Suzuki) 1:28.687
4. Cameron Beaubier (Yamaha) 1:28.771
5. Tommy Aquino (Yamaha) 1:29.029
6. Jake Holden (Ducati) 1:29.204
7. Paul Allison (Yamaha) 1:29.314
8. Dane Westby (Suzuki) 1:29.516
9. Cory West (Suzuki) 1:29.539
10. Fernando Amantini (Kawasaki) 1:29.630

 

Paul Carruthers | Editor

Paul Carruthers took over as the editor of Cycle News in 1993 after serving as associate editor since starting his career at the publication in 1985. Carruthers has covered every facet of the sport in his near-28-year tenure at America's Daily Motorcycle News Source.