Rain interrupts Utah practice

From M4 EMGO Suzuki

TOOELE, UT -- Team M4 EMGO Suzuki opened the combined AMA/World Superbike race weekend at Miller Motorsports Park on Thursday.

The first of four days at MMP was impacted by brief rain showers that greeted and closed the day, but despite the difficult conditions Cory West came away with a second row grid position for Friday's Formula Xtreme final.

Rain hit the area shortly after the FX qualifying session began and prior to West posting a quick time, leaving the Arkansas native stranded well down the charts. However, the rain stopped halfway through and the track quickly dried, allowing him to clock a 2:56.570 lap time around the 4.5-mile circuit late the session aboard his Pirelli-shod GSX-R600, jumping all the way up to sixth in the end.

West was nearly joined on the second row by Michael Barnes, who qualified ninth fastest at 2:57.596.

The morning Superstock session was also affected by wet conditions. Blake Young managed to post the ninth best time at 2:56.292 despite only logging a few laps before calling it a day on his GSX-R1000 and turning his attention to the Supersport session.

Young led the way in the Supersport class for the team, ending the practice eighth fastest at 2:56.182. West was ninth at 2:56.255 followed by Barnes in 17th at 2:58.479.

Young said, "I only made like two or three laps in Superstock before making the early decision to come in due to the conditions. If I would have stayed out I probably could have went faster with the rest of the guys at the end but figured I'd get to see the track again in Supersport.

"Later in the day I walked around the track and watched the Superbike guys to see what they were doing a little bit different and learned as much as I could. I hope the conditions are good tomorrow morning so we can set some times and get the bike set up a little bit better."

On Friday Young will qualify for Saturday's Superstock final and then West and Barnes will tackle the afternoon's nine-lap, 60k Formula Xtreme race.