AMA Pro Road Racing GoPro Daytona SportBike Daytona International Speedway Daytona Beach, Florida March 15, 2012 Free Practice Two Results (3.5-mile course, all on Dunlop tires): 1. Jason DiSalvo (Triumph Daytona 675R), 1:49.734 2. Cameron Beaubier (Yamaha YZF-R6), 1:50.104 3. Joey Pascarella (Yamaha YZF-R6), 1:51.094 4. Martin Cardenas (Suzuki GSX-R600), 1:51.313 5. Cory West (Suzuki GSX-R600), 1:51.495 6. Dane Westby (Suzuki GSX-R600), 1:51.662 7. J.D. Beach (Yamaha YZF-R6), 1:51.666 8. Tommy Aquino (Yamaha YZF-R6), 1:52.039 9. Fernando Amantini (Kawasaki ZX-6R), 1:52.251 10. Huntley Nash (Yamaha YZF-R6), 1:52.268 11. Jake Gagne (Yamaha YZF-R6), 1:52.317 12. Barrett Long (Ducati 848), 1:52.327 13. Robertino Pietri (Yamaha YZF-R6), 1:52.836 14. David Gaviria (Yamaha YZF-R6), 1:52.995 15. Kris Turner (Triumph Daytona 675R), 1:53.148 16. Michael Beck (Yamaha YZF-R6), 1:53.158 17. Jake Zemke (Ducati 848EVO), 1:53.385 18. Benny Solis (Suzuki GSX-R600), 1:53.777 19. Bryce Prince (Yamaha YZF-R6), 1:53.961 20. Austin Dehaven (Yamaha YZF-R6), 1:54.080 21. Bobby Fong (Yamaha YZF-R6), 1:54.240 22. Shane Narbonne (Yamaha YZF-R6), 1:54.380 23. Michael Barnes (Yamaha YZF-R6), 1:55.130 24. Ben Young (Yamaha YZF-R6), 1:55.278 25. Scott Ryan (Yamaha YZF-R6), 1:55.387 26. Jeff Wrobel (Yamaha YZF-R6), 1:55.872 27. Josh Galster (Yamaha YZF-R6), 1:56.113 28. Paul Allison (Yamaha YZF-R6), 1:56.139 29. Anthony Fania (Yamaha YZF-R6), 1:56.249 30. Reese Wacker (Yamaha YZF-R6), 1:56.275 31. Eric Haugo (Yamaha YZF-R6), 1:56.517 32. Bostjan Skubic (Suzuki GSX-R600), 1:56.596 33. Darren James (Buell 1125R), 1:56.932 34. Dalton Dimick (Yamaha YZF-R6), 1:57.103 35. Matthew Sadowski (Suzuki GSX-R600), 1:57.116 36. Ricky Orlando (Kawasaki ZX-6R), 1:57.184 37. Dario Marchetti (Ducati 848EVO), 1:57.304 38. Melissa Paris (Yamaha YZF-R6), 1:57.360 39. David Sadowski, Jr. (Suzuki GSX-R600), 1:57.653 40. Sam Rozynski (Yamaha YZF-R6), 1:57.901 41. Nico Vivarelli (Yamaha YZF-R6), 1:58.046 42. Pat Mooney (Buell 1125R), 1:58.350 43. Frankie Garcia (Yamaha YZF-R6), 1:59.098 44. John Ashmead (Kawasaki ZX-6R), 1:59.170 45. Garrett Gerloff (Yamaha YZF-R6), no time recorded More, from a press release issued by Team Hammer: WESTBY SHOWS SPEED AT DAYTONA M4 Broaster Chicken Suzuki’s Dane Westby demonstrated promising form on the opening day of the 2012 AMA Pro Road Racing season on Thursday at Daytona International Speedway as he prepared for Saturday’s assault on the historic Daytona 200. The Daytona SportBike title contender ran in the top five in the morning practice with a fast time of 1:52.740 aboard his GSX-R600 and then proceeded to lower his time by a full second in the second session (1:51.662) to end the day ranked sixth overall. Westby was in a positive mood at the conclusion of the day, saying he’s in even better shape than his results suggest. “Today went really well,” said Westby after concentrating on long runs and consistent lap times. “Everything is lining up for me. I feel really good about things, both here at Daytona and the season in general. The times don’t show in practice but the race is a different ball game. I’m not so worried about the time. We’re looking forward to the race and 200 miles.” SuzukiScoop Fans SportbikeTrackGear.com M4 Suzuki’s Elena Myers was also significantly more competitive than the final times appear to show. Provisional AMA Pro SuperSport qualifying results list the teenager in 11th position at 1:55.047, but Myers actually clocked the session’s third-fastest time only to see it disallowed as a red flag brought the session to a close seconds before she officially completed her hot lap. Chris Ulrich put the M4 Broaster Chicken Suzuki GSX-R1000 16th-fastest at 1:41.746, running similar times to a tightly-packed group of riders in the stacked field. Ulrich admits he’s still getting back in the groove but happy to be back on track following his injury-marred 2011 season. “It’s good to be back in the paddock and back on the track after last year,” Ulrich said. “I’m thankful to be back out there. The first day at Daytona has its challenges and we’re just working through everything. We haven’t tested much and we’re still a little rusty after last year, but we’re close. We figured something out right at the end of practice. I’m not going to say I’m happy to be 16th but I’m not going to say everything is lost either. We’ll work on it and continue working in the right direction tomorrow.” On Friday, Westby will make a bid for the Rolex awarded for winning the pole for the Daytona 200 while Ulrich and Myers will claim their final grid positions and compete in the Superbike and SuperSport season opening races. More, from a press release issued by RoadRace Factory/Red Bull: Daytona, FL (March 15, 2012): The RoadRace Factory/Red Bull team began the 2012 season on Thursday at Daytona, with J.D. Beach and Jake Gagne taking on the field for the 71st Daytona 200 and Hayden Gillim and Tomas Puerta battling in SuperSport action. Months of hard work by the entire organization paid off as the new team saw all four riders take to the track at the first AMA Pro event of the year. Beach impressed in the first practices for this year’s installment of the Daytona 200. After running near the vanguard in last year’s race, Beach hopes to do the same this year. He was seventh in practice on Thursday afternoon. “I was able to run up front last year, so I got a chance to see what it takes to go 200 miles here, and be competitive.” said J.D. “We kinda struggled in the morning but by the afternoon, the bike was starting to work really well. We kept the same tire on the whole time, so we could have gone faster but we wanted to learn some things. Come race time, we should be sitting good.” Jake Gagne was also riding very hard in the two sessions. Jake was ranked 11th in the timing chart in the afternoon, an admirable effort in his first US action in a couple of seasons after his foray into European racing. “It was my first time back here at Daytona in a couple of years. We have a couple of things to work out to improve the bike before tomorrow, but we’ll get it working,” said Gagne. “I’m definitely not happy as to where we ended up but we’ll keep improving as the weekend goes on.” After setting fast time in flat track qualifying, Hayden Gillim hustled back to the high banks and got down to business in his road racing duties. Gillim was fourth and on the provisional front row in SuperSport. “I was really happy,” said Gillim. “We figured some things out with suspension and gearing. We worked our way forward. It’s looking good. I am off by a second but what I did not have was a draft buddy to improve my times in the last segment. The goal was to ride around without drafting anyone to see how strong we were. I think things are looking quite good for us so far. As soon as I get a draft buddy, I’ll be right there fighting for pole.” Tomas Puerta won in SuperSport at Daytona last year and qualified a strong seventh, but the Colombian wasn’t quite satisfied. “I didn’t like the qualifying today,” said Puerta. “We had three red flags and it made things tough. We’re struggling a little bit but last year was somewhat the same. I want to get up on the front row, then go for it in the race.” “Holy cow, the first day for the RoadRace Factory/Red Bull team at Daytona was spectacular,” said manager Danny Walker. “It actually was, considering where we started, great. We’re a competitive group and we want to win but we’re going to have a good time as well. We want to win and we’ll keep improving but it was important for us to get out there today and have a really good day. It was a huge success. J.D. won’t be happy unless he’s fighting for the pole and the win. Jake has never ridden on these tires or this configuration. We have a couple of things to figure out with his bike but we think he can be up in the top five also. Hayden kept getting more and more aggressive as the session moved on. That’s good because we wanted him to work up to speed and he did. With Tomy, we’ve decided to go to his “B” bike in the morning and see how that goes. He was still pretty competitive but he’s won here and he wants to win again. Our philosophy is to be competitive and have fun and we think today was a real success.” More, from a press release issued by LTD Racing: IMPRESSIVE FIRST DAY FOR LTD RACING’S NASH AND GAVIRIA AT DAYTONA Daytona, FL March 15, 2012: LTD Racing’s Huntley Nash and David Gaviria prepared for the 71st Daytona 200 with two practice sessions on Thursday, and both riders were able to put forth competitive performances. Nash, after an injury-plagued 2011, showed great form as the Georgian is finally healthy. Gaviria, the reigning AMA Pro SuperSport West champ, showed his mettle in his first day in the Daytona SportBike class. Nash was tenth in the afternoon practice and ran higher in the order during the session. “I’m pumped. The bike feels really good and I haven’t felt this good on a bike since 2010 when I won some races,” said Nash. “I had my skirt flapping all last year but I wasn’t able to do what I wanted. I feel we’re pretty good right now but with some more bike and rider improvements we can have a great Daytona 200. I think all the road miles and training may help us out in a long race like this. Thanks go out to the team for sticking with me.” Gaviria earned 14th in the afternoon. The Colombian won a race at Daytona last year and has jumped up a class for 2012. “This class is very difficult and there are a lot of competitive riders. I tried my best and in the last session, I felt it got a lot better. We’re still spinning a lot of the banking but we’ll make some changes and do our best. Last year I was really excited when I won and I did not expect that. I feel I need to learn a lot about the other riders and improve step by step but I will improve for sure.” “The boys are good,” said LTD Racing’s Gary Medley. “Huntley’s up there. The training he did this offseason paid off and he’s not hurt anymore. David should be up there tomorrow, too. We have a couple of changes to do on his bike to help him. The first day of a new class is hard with all these devils out there fighting for tenths. The top 15 is usually within about a second or so. It’s tough. The crew did a good job today and we’re confident.” Friday will see qualifying for the Daytona 200, which will be held Saturday afternoon.