Yoshimura Suzuki’s Ben Spies was the fastest rider during provisional AMA Superbike qualifying Friday at Barber Motorsports Park, in Birmingham, Alabama. Spies said he used race-compound Dunlops on his GSX-R1000 to turn his best lap, a 1:24.318, which undercut his old lap record of 1:24.830 by over half a second. Spies told reporters that he was comfortable doing that lap time and hoped he could go faster during the final qualifying session Saturday morning. “The bike’s working really good,” Spies said, who was under the lap record on his second lap of practice Friday morning. “I’d like to do a 1:23 with the track being cooler and putting a softer tire on. I think it’s possible. Three tenths isn’t a whole lot. I’d like to be the first guy to get in the 1:23s here, but that’s gonna take a pretty perfect lap to do that.” Although Mat Mladin’s fastest lap was a 1:25.013, it appeared as if the six-time former AMA Superbike Champion was more focused on his race set-up. In fact, while Spies was ripping off his best time, Mladin was doing a multi-lap run with all of his lap times in the low-1:25s. Last year’s race pace varied from high-1:25s to low-to-mid-1:26s. Tommy Hayden, the newest member of the Yoshimura Suzuki team, latched onto Mladin late in the session and turned his best lap of the weekend so far, a 1:25.070. Yamaha’s Eric Bostrom jumped up the order with his last two laps, a 1:26.036 and a 1:25.831, which earned him the final spot on the provisional front row. Miguel Duhamel was the fastest Honda rider Friday, his 1:25.942 putting him fifth in the provisional qualifying order. Michael Jordan Motorsports Suzuki’s Jake Holden was third-fastest on his Superstock-spec GSX-R1000 with less than seven minutes to go in qualifying, but his 1:26.045 was shuffled down the order in the final minutes. He ended up sixth-quickest. Bostrom’s teammate Jason DiSalvo was right behind Holden with a 1:26.052, and Duhamel’s teammate Jake Zemke rounded out the provisional second row with a 1:26.401 on his CBR1000RR. Riding with a two-week-old broken rib, Holden’s teammate Aaron Yates qualified ninth Friday with a 1:26.434. Jamie Hacking turned a 1:25.884 on his Monster Energy Kawasaki ZX-10R in Friday morning practice, but in the afternoon his best effort was only 1:26.577, the 10th-fastest time. Hacking’s teammate Roger Hayden qualified 13th Friday afternoon, only a few hours after he suffered a big crash on his ZX-6R Supersport bike. AMA Superbike Championship Presented by Parts Unlimited Barber Motorsports Park Birmingham, Alabama April 20, 2007 Provisional Qualifying Results: 1. Ben Spies (Suz GSX-R1000), Dunlop, 1:24.318 2. Mat Mladin (Suz GSX-R1000), Dunlop, 1:25.013 3. Tommy Hayden (Suz GSX-R1000), Dunlop, 1:25.071 4. Eric Bostrom (Yam YZF-R1), Dunlop, 1:25.831 5. Miguel Duhamel (Hon CBR1000RR), Dunlop, 1:25.942 6. Jake Holden (Suz GSX-R1000), Dunlop, 1:26.045* 7. Jason DiSalvo (Yam YZF-R1), Dunlop, 1:26.052 8. Jake Zemke (Hon CBR1000RR), Dunlop, 1:26.401 9. Aaron Yates (Suz GSX-R1000), Dunlop, 1:26.434 10. Jamie Hacking (Kaw ZX-10R), Dunlop, 1:26.577 11. James Ellison (Hon CBR1000RR), Dunlop, 1:27.020 12. Matt Lynn (MV Agusta F4-1000R 312), Dunlop, 1:27.450 13. Roger Hayden (Kaw ZX-10R), Dunlop, 1:27.475 14. Luca Scassa (MV Agusta F4-1000R 312), Dunlop, 1:27.673 15. Jordan Szoke (Kaw ZX-10R), Pirelli, 1:27.918 16. Kevin Lacombe (Yam YZF-R1), Pirelli, 1:28.027 17. John Haner (Suz GSX-R1000), Dunlop, 1:28.410* 18. Steve Crevier (Yam YZF-R1), Pirelli, 1:28.458 19. Doug Chandler (Hon CBR1000RR), Dunlop, 1:28.475 20. Clint McBain (Suz GSX-R1000), Pirelli, 1:28.548 21. Francis Martin (Suz GSX-R1000), Pirelli, 1:28.707 22. Kurtis Roberts (Hon CBR1000RR), Dunlop, 1:28.720 23. Martin Cardenas (Kaw ZX-10R), 1:29.276 24. David Weber (Suz GSX-R1000), Dunlop, 1:29.516 25. Dean Mizdal (Suz GSX-R1000), 1:29.614 26. Robertino Pietri (Suz GSX-R1000), Pirelli, 1:30.509 27. Andrew Nelson (Yam YZF-R1), Pirelli, 1:30.644 28. Scott Jensen (Suz GSX-R1000), Pirelli, 1:30.727 29. Tristan Palmer (Suz GSX-R1000), 1:30.850 30. Dominic Jones (Suz GSX-R1000), Pirelli, 1:31.335 31. James Stroud (Suz GSX-R1000), Pirelli, 1:31.370 32. Johnny Rock Page (Yam YZF-R1), Dunlop, 1:31.489 33. Chuck Ivey (Yam YZF-R1), Pirelli, 1:32.021 34. Santiago Villa (Suz GSX-R1000), Dunlop, 1:32.455 35. Chad Rolland (Suz GSX-R1000), 1:32.577 36. James Kerker (Hon CBR1000RR), 1:32.870 37. Brendon Marshall (Suz GSX-R1000), 1:32.980 38. Scott Carpenter (Suz GSX-R1000), Pirelli, 1:33.536 39. Marcin Biernacki (Yam YZF-R1), 1:35.183 * Superstock-spec machine More, from a press release issued by Team Suzuki Press Office: Reigning AMA Superbike Champion Ben Spies headed a Yoshimura Suzuki GSX-R1000 clean sweep of the top three places during qualifying for this weekend’s AMA Superbike double-header at Barber Motorsports Park in Birmingham, Alabama. The Texan rider beat his own lap record, set during his victory there last year, with a time of 1:24.318 around the sun-blessed 2.4-mile circuit to finish ahead of team mates Mat Mladin and Tommy Hayden. Said Spies: “The bike’s working really well but I’d like to my times down into the 1:23s. If the track is cooler in the morning and if I put a softer tyre on, I think it’s possible. But right now we’ve got a good bike and it’s working really well on race tyres.” Barber was where he began his 2006 championship victory-run last season: After his double-victory, he followed up with wins at California Speedway and Infineon Raceway and by the time defending Champion Mat Mladin recovered, it was too late. “It’s just it’s nice to come back here – the first track where we kind of started the streak and we started the Championship season – and come back with the Number One plate and be on the top so far. Mat’s definitely stepped his game up too and it’s going to be a good weekend an interesting year and I think.” Mladin was consistently second fastest and he finished just 700ths-of-a-second behind, closely followed by the newest Yoshimura team member Tommy Hayden with a time of 1:25.070.