Magnificent seven for Spies

From the World Superbike Championship

TOOELE, UTAH -- Ben Spies (Yamaha World Superbike) will start Sunday's Utah round of the Hannspree FIM Superbike World Championship at Miller Motorsports Park from pole position after powering to a record seventh Superpole in seven races.

The 24-year-old Texan wiped out the old record of six poles on the run set by fellow Texan Doug Polen in 1991. Spies was quickest both in Superpole 2 and Superpole 3 to take the front slot with a time of 1 minute 48.319 seconds.

"It was a good session for us," Spies said. "The last few minutes there were some drops coming down and we were pretty nervous, but we'd worked well since this morning and I stuck to the plan in Superpole. I think we have a good race pace, there are a few guys that have good pace as well so the race should be interesting. Twelve months ago I didn't think I'd be here on pole at Miller in Superbike but it's great."

In Superpole 1 the fastest time of 1:49.261 was set by American Jamie Hacking, who surprised everyone on the Kawasaki World Superbike machine that has so far had a difficult start to the season.

Second and third places on the grid went to the Ten Kate Honda pairing of Spain's Carlos Checa, last year's double race winner, and Ryuichi Kiyonari of Japan, while Italian Michel Fabrizio (Ducati Xerox) continued his good feeling with the Miller track with the final front row grid slot.

"Finally this year I'm starting to be in the front group," Checa said. "I feel that the second place is very important to make a good start tomorrow. Overall it looks good, I hope the weather stays dry because at the end of the practice it was a little bit scary, with dark clouds and lightning.

"I don't know what is happening here at Miller. I always have a good feeling with this circuit, it's a good track with a lot of grip so we need to check why we have no grip in the other circuits."

Shane Byrne (Sterilgarda Ducati) proved to be best of the Brits with a good run to sixth, a couple of tenths behind Jakub Smrz on a similar Guandalini 1098 machine. Broc Parkes and Hacking made it a positive day for Kawasaki with seventh and eighth places on the grid.

Max Biaggi's unfortunate feeling with Superpole continued as Friday's provisional pole holder crashed during Superpole 2 and although the Italian managed to get back to the pits he was eliminated and will start from row 4 with the 16th time.

It was also a difficult Superpole for points leader Noriyuki Haga (Ducati Xerox) who had a nasty-looking crash in qualifying from which he came away bruised and battered. Haga was eliminated from the second knock-out phase and will start from row 3 with ninth quickest time.

Spies and Fabrizio, respectively 88 and 85 points behind, may now have a chance to cut the gap Sunday in the two 21-lap races.

Joan Lascorz, 24 years old from Spain, scored his first-ever pole position in the seventh round of the Supersport World Championship at Miller Motorsports Park. This is the seventh time since 1999 a Kawasaki has started from pole, the last time being the Australian Round in 2007, with Fabien Foret on board.

Lascorz's time of 1:51.749 on the Kawasaki Motocard.com ZX-6R was a fraction quicker than Irishman Eugene Laverty (Parkalgar Honda), while points leader Cal Crutchlow (Yamaha World Supersport) qualified third.

Italian Gianluca Nannelli produced a great performance on the ParkinGO 675 machine to give Triumph its first front row position in 2009.

In 27th place (out of 29 starters) can be found Melissa Paris, 26 years old from California, who becomes the first woman to start a Supersport World Championship race, while the 28-year-old Canadian Marie-Joseé Boucher of Montreal failed to qualify her Excel Moto Honda CBR600RR.

Andrew Nelson of Kars, ON will start 28th aboard his Nelson Racing Yamaha YZF-R6.

Superbike Qualifying Times
1. Spies B. (USA) Yamaha YZF-R1 1:48.344
2. Checa C. (ESP) Honda CBR1000RR 1:48.908
3. Kiyonari R. (JPN) Honda CBR1000RR 1:49.243
4. Fabrizio M. (ITA) Ducati 1098R 1:49.434
5. Smrz J. (CZE) Ducati 1098R 1:49.658
6. Byrne S. (GBR) Ducati 1098R 1:49.982
7. Parkes B. (AUS) Kawasaki ZX-10R 1:51.3288
8. Hacking J. (USA) Kawasaki ZX-10R 1:51.438
9. Haga N. (JPN) Ducati 1098R 1:49.516
10. Nakano S. (JPN) Aprilia RSV4 Factory 1:49.528
11. Rea J. (GBR) Honda CBR1000RR 1:49.541
12. Haslam L. (GBR) Honda CBR1000RR 1:49.765
13. Kagayama Y. (JPN) Suzuki GSX-R1000 K9 1:50.114
14. Nieto F. (ESP) Suzuki GSX-R1000 K9 1:50.488
15. Scassa L. (ITA) Kawasaki ZX-10R 1:50.987
16. Biaggi M. (ITA) Aprilia RSV4 Factory 1:51.351