Fillmore Leads XR Qualfying

Paul Carruthers | August 26, 2011

INDIANAPOLIS, IN, AUGUST 26 –

Turns out if you were in the AMA Pro Vance & Hines Harley-Davidson XR1200 Series today at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, for things to go good in qualifying, they had to go badly in morning practice.At least that was the case for the top two qualifiers with championship leader Chris Fillmore crashing out of this morning’s session with a highside from his Bruce Rossmeyers Daytona Racing/Geico-backed XR, but then bouncing back to earn pole position this afternoon. Second fastest qualifier Steve Rapp also had issues this morning with his bike lasting less than a lap before expiring and knocking him out of the entire session.But both of those riders were able to turn things around this afternoon by besting the rest of the XR pack with Fillmore’s 1:56.448 just .017 of a second faster than Parts Unlimited-backed Rapp. And the lead pairing were the only ones to circulate under the 1:57 mark.

Third fastest went to Tyler O’Hara Racing’s Tyler O’Hara, the Californian besting Northern Ireland’s Jeremy McWilliams, the veteran road racer in turn holding off the advances of another veteran – Michael Barnes. Barnes is riding the Drag Specialites/Vance & Hines-backed XR.Latus Motors Harley-Davidson’s Jason DiSalvo could do no better than seventh after crashing out of the afternoon session. The New Yorker had led both this morning’s session and the two-day test held last week at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

XR1200 Qualfiying

1. Chris Fillmore (1:56.448)2. Steve Rapp (1:56.455)3. Tyler O’Hara (1:57.021)4. Jeremy McWilliams (1:57.227)5. Michael Barnes (1:57.478)6. Kyle Wyman (1:57.942)7. Jason DiSalvo (1:58.566)8. Shawn Higbee (1:58.888)9. Steve Crevier (2:00.198)10. Gerry Signorelli (2:00.422)