Holden claims Superstock pole

From amasuperbike.com

Corona Honda's Jake Holden continued his recent stellar form in Friday's AMA Superstock qualifying session, securing his third pole position in five attempts this season.

With the World Superbike series also included in the weekend slate and the long Miller Motorsports Park configuration to contend with, qualifying sessions are not being split into two groups as is customary, making for a busy session.

Holden successfully navigated the slower riders and posted a 2:47.639, amounting to right around a two-tenth-of-a-second advantage over his Jordan Suzuki rivals, Aaron Yates and Geoff May, following 4.5 miles of riding at the maximum.

"Well, it started off pretty rough," Holden said. "There's a lot of guys out there -- more than usual; they cut up the slow guys and the fast guys in one session. So it was kind of tough to get a clear lap at the beginning. Once it started spreading out a little bit we threw on a couple different tires and started going quicker and quicker."

Points leader Yates was second fastest at 2:47.830 with May right behind at 2:47.872.

Team M4 EMGO Suzuki's Blake Young rounded out the front row with a best time 2:49.261. The Wisconsin native is still working his way up to speed after not testing here and missing most of Thursday's practice due to the wet conditions.

Team ESP's Chris Peris heads the second row and will be joined on the all-Suzuki second row by Robertino Pietri, David Anthony, and Ben Thompson. The third row will feature Chris Ulrich, Ryan Elleby, Seth Starnes, and Hawk Mazzotta.

The nine-lap Superstock race will get underway at 1:55pm local time Saturday afternoon.