Larry Pegram was the fastest rider Wednesday as the 2010 AMA Pro National Guard American Superbike Championship opened practice at Daytona International Speedway. Riding his Foremost Insurance Pegram Racing Ducati 1098, Pegram lapped the 2.9-mile “short course” in 1:40.279 to lead the first, 30-minute practice and then he used a fresh rear tire at the end of the hour-long second practice to record a 1:39.039. Actually, Pegram did his best time well before the end of the session and even sat out the last 15 minutes. “We don’t get very many tires now,” said Pegram, referring to the tire allocation available to each rider in American Superbike. “With the way the rules got changed to where you can change tires during the red flag you’ve got to have four [rear] tires going into the races, one for each race plus one back-up for each race. So we basically get five rear tires to use, and I wasn’t going to use another rear tire. “I went 15 laps on a tire, then I came in, put on a new tire and did two or three laps. There was still 15 minutes left, but I wasn’t going to burn up that tire. We’ve got two more sessions and we only have a couple of more tires left to use. I think everyone’s in the same boat.” Pegram felt the racetrack was “slower” than it was in 2009, possibly due to Wednesday’s unseasonably cold temperatures and gusting winds, but he actually went faster than he did during the first day of practice last season. He credited that to stored data. “We now have set-up information from all the tracks,” said Pegram. “Last year we had nothing. Now we show up and we have information. We’re just a few millimeters from where we were last year. The gearing is already good. I feel pretty good.” Second-fastest in both sessions was 2009 American Superbike Championship runner-up Josh Hayes, who did a best time of 1:39.550 on his Graves Motorsports Yamaha YZF-R1. Jordan Suzuki’s Aaron Yates (1:39.628), Rockstar Makita Suzuki’s Tommy Hayden (1:39.660), Pat Clark Motorsports Yamaha’s Ben Bostrom (1:39.894) and Hayden’s teammate Blake Young (1:40.067) also turned competitive times. AMA Pro American Superbike Championship Daytona International Speedway Daytona Beach, Florida March 3, 2010 Provisional Free Practice Two Results (2.9-mile course, all on Dunlop tires): 1. Larry Pegram (Duc 1098), 1:39.039 2. Josh Hayes (Yam YZF-R1), 1:39.550 3. Aaron Yates (Suz GSX-R1000), 1:39.628 4. Tommy Hayden (Suz GSX-R1000), 1:39.660 5. Ben Bostrom (Yam YZF-R1), 1:39.894 6. Blake Young (Suz GSX-R1000), 1:40.067 7. Brett McCormick (Suz GSX-R1000), 1:40.584 8. John Hopkins (Suz GSX-R1000), 1:40.723 9. Jake Zemke (Suz GSX-R1000), 1:40.725 10. Shawn Higbee (Duc 1098), 1:41.271 11. David Anthony (Suz GSX-R1000), 1:41.470 12. Chris Ulrich (Suz GSX-R1000), 1:41.572 13. Taylor Knapp (Suz GSX-R1000), 1:41.818 14. Jeffrey Tigert (Hon CBR1000RR), 1:42.348 15. Shane Narbonne (Suz GSX-R1000), 1:43.036 16. Chris Clark (Yam YZF-R1), 1:43.629 17. Eric Haugo (Suz GSX-R1000), 1:46.003 18. Scott Jensen (Suz GSX-R1000), 1:46.155 19. Jean Paul Tache (Suz GSX-R1000), 1:46.417 20. Johnny Rock Page (Suz GSX-R1000), 1:46.822 Additional practice results were not immediately available from AMA Pro Racing timing and scoring.