DiSalvo on pole; Cardenas on sidelines

From AMA Pro Racing

MILLVILLE, NJ - In AMA Pro Daytona SportBike qualifying at New Jersey Motorsports Park on Friday, Jason DiSalvo (No. 40 Team M4 Suzuki GSX-R600) won a class-leading sixth Superpole of the season with a top lap of 1:23.840 (94.466 mph). He is one of three riders in Friday's Daytona SportBike Superpole top four looking for their first wins of the year in this weekend's season-ending pair of races.

"I think it's going to be a really, really tight race," DiSalvo said. "The lap times have been super tight all weekend. It's just kind of blowing me away having 16 guys within a second of each other.

"We just have to do a little more work to the bike tomorrow morning. Our settings are really, really good. We got a lot of work done yesterday during the practice. I'm sure it'll be a good race. We'll try to lead off the start and see if we can't stay in the lead for 21, 22 laps."

Tommy Aquino (No. 6 Team Graves Yamaha YZF-R6) will share the two-rider front row with DiSalvo after his best qualifying effort of the year. Aquino turned a lap of 1:24.013 (94.271 mph).

"I'm pretty happy," Aquino said. "This is my best qualifying yet, and it should be really good for the race. A win is always the goal for this season. This is my first season, so we're just going for race wins, to see what we can do and figure stuff out for next year. A race win would be really awesome."

Aquino's teammate Josh Herrin (No. 8 Team Graves Yamaha YZF-R6) was third fastest at 1:24.118 (94.154 mph) and is the only rider in the top four who has scored a race win this season.

"I want to end the season well," said Herrin, who swept the most recent weekend of racing at VIR. "The last four or five rounds have been going our way. We did better in qualifying than we have in the last couple of rounds. Everything is going well; we just have to run a smooth race and put the Yamaha back on top of the box again. The track is awesome, I couldn't complain about anything and I've been having a lot of fun this weekend. I can't wait to come back next year."

Chaz Davies (No. 57 Factory Aprilia /Millennium Technologies Team Aprilia RSV1000R) turned in a solid qualifying effort with the fourth fastest lap of the Superpole session at 1:24.189 (94.074 mph).

Jake Zemke (No. 1x Erion Racing Honda CBR600RR) rounded out the Daytona SportBike Superpole top five.

In other Daytona SportBike developments, this weekend's anticipated championship showdown between Danny Eslick (No. 9 GEICO Powersports/RMR Buell 1125R) and Martin Cardenas (No. 36 Team M4 Suzuki GSX-R600) will not happen. The Colombian rider withdrew from the New Jersey round due to a compound fracture of his right hand sustained three weeks ago in Friday practice for the Suzuki Big Kahuna Nationals at Virginia International Raceway.

"I had surgery 15 days ago but the scar is coming apart in one section and it's beginning to be too painful," said Cardenas, who participated in Friday morning's practice session. "I am worried about infection so I think the better thing to do is to stop for this weekend and heal up properly for next year.

"It was a very good season. Unfortunately I made a mistake, a very stupid mistake, at VIR and I got this injury. The year didn't finish the way I wanted it to but things are like that. Hopefully next season will be no problem."

Eslick also had a tough day and missed the Superpole session after running 13th in group qualifying. He can improve in Saturday's final qualifying session but can start no higher than 11th behind today's 10 Superpole qualifiers. With Cardenas out of the running, however, all Eslick needs to do is basically record a pair of solid finishes in each of this weekend's Daytona SportBike races to leave New Jersey with the title.

Cardenas' withdrawal leaves Herrin as Eslick's only remaining championship challenger. Herrin is third in the championship but will need nothing short of another dominating weekend coupled with a pair of bad results by Eslick to have any chance at taking the Daytona SportBike championship.

"We're just going to go into it like we did at VIR, not even think about the championship, and just go for those race wins," Herrin said.

Saturday's Daytona SportBike final is scheduled to start at 4:10 p.m. ET for 23 laps/50 miles and can be seen in same-day coverage on SPEED that night at 7:30 p.m. ET.

The No. 13 Westby Racing Yamaha YZF-R6 of Dane Westby and Dustin Meador continued to roll in AMA Pro SunTrust Moto-GT, winning the overall and GT1 class pole for Saturday's two-hour race. The Westby team won in its debut at Mid-Ohio, was victorious again one race later in Topeka and was leading at VIR when mechanical problems set in. The No. 13 will share the front row with GT1 championship leading No. 14 Crozier Motorsports Triumph Daytona 675 of Mark Crozier and Scott Jensen. The No. 13 won the pole with a lap time of 1:26.257 (91.819 mph), while the No. 14 turned a top lap of 1:26.927 (91.111 mph).

In GT2, the class-leading No. 77 Touring Sport Ducshop Ducati PS1000LE of Frank Shockley and Huntley Nash continued the team's near-perfect season and moved one step closer to leaving New Jersey with the class championship. Only an unlikely finish out of the points in Saturday's race will prevent the No. 77 squad from wrapping up the title in New Jersey.

In AMA Pro SuperSport, recently crowned East division championship Josh Day (No. 4 Team E.S.P. Yamaha YZF-R6) set the pace in Friday's opening practice. Day lapped at 1:24.666 (93.544 mph). Sunday's only SuperSport race of the weekend will start at 3:10 p.m. for 19 laps/40 miles with qualifying scheduled for Saturday.

Daytona SportBike Superpole Results
1. Jason DiSalvo (M4 Suzuki) Suzuki GSX-R600 1:23.839
2. Tommy Aquino (Team Graves Yamaha) Yamaha YZF-R6 +0.173
3. Josh Herrin (Team Graves Yamaha) Yamaha YZF-R6 +0.278
4. Chaz Davies (Factory Aprilia Millennium Technologies Team) Aprilia RSV1000R +0.349
5. Jake Zemke (Erion Racing) Honda CBR600RR +0.489
6. Steve Rapp (Bazzaz) Yamaha YZF-R6 +0.513
7. Taylor Knapp (Latus Motors Racing) Buell 1125R +0.670
8. Roger Hayden (Monster Energy Attack Kawasaki) Kawasaki ZX-6R +0.727
9. Bobby Fong (Paradigm Racing) Yamaha YZF-R6 +0.850
10. Chris Peris (Erion Racing) Honda CBR600RR +0.850