Cardenas Fast on Windy Day in Utah
Henny Ray Abrams | May 26, 2012
TOOELE, UTAH, MAY 26 – Geico Suzuki’s Martin Cardenas took the provisional pole for Sunday’s Daytona Sportbike race on a blustery, cold afternoon at Miller Motorsports Park in Tooele, Utah.
The lap of 1:56.336 mins. by the DSB championship leader was more than a second slower than the previous qualifying mark. Latus Motors Racing’s Jason DiSalvo set the qualifying record of 1:55.291 mins. last year on a Ducati 848. This year he’s on a Latus Motors Racing Triumph Daytona 675 and this afternoon he came second to Cardenas, and only by .014 sec.
Third in provisional qualifying went to Y.E.S. Graves Yamaha’s Cameron Beaubier. Beaubier finished third in the first race at Infineon Raceway two weeks ago, then sat out Sunday’s race after his knee injury flared up. Teammate Tommy Hayden was fifth fastest today, with Ducshop Racing’s Jake Zemke in between on the Ducati 848 EVO.
Daytona Sportbike Qualifying:
1. Martin Cardenas (Suzuki) 1:56.522
2. Jason DiSalvo (Triumph) 1:56.536
3. Cameron Beaubier (Yamaha) 1:56.930
4. Jake Zemke (Ducati) 1:57.188
5. Tommy Hayden (Yamaha) 1:57.292
6. Benny Solis (Yamaha) 1:57.694
7. JD Beach (Yamaha) 1:57.808
8. Dane Westby (Suzuki) 1:57.881
9. Tommy Aquino (Yamaha) 1:58.841
10. Bobby Fong (Yamaha) 1:59.033
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.
