Duhamel sixth in Superbike

By John Hopkins

Miguel Duhamel will be the best placed Canadian on the grid for Saturday's Superbike race at Daytona International Speedway.

The factory Honda rider was sixth fastest in qualifying today aboard his Honda CBR1000RR with a time of one minute, 40.891 seconds.

Australian Mat Mladin set tongues wagging at the Speedway with a 1:38.232 around the 2.95-mile track on his Yoshimura Suzuki GSX-R1000 to claim pole. His teammate Ben Spies was a distant second with a time of 1:38.963 and the third Yoshimura GSX-R1000 of Aaron Yates was fourth fastest on a 1:39.894.

The Suzuki monopoly was broken up by Englishman Neil Hodgson on his Ducati 999. Hodgson was third fastest with a time of 1:39.884.

Diablo Suzuki teammates Steve Crevier and Francis Martin qualified 25th and 31st, respectively on their GSX-R1000s. Crevier set a time of 1:44.510 while Martin managed a 1:46.188.