Graves Yamaha’s 17-year-old Tommy Aquino earned the first AMA pole position of his young career by posting the fastest time in AMA Pro Daytona SportBike qualifying Saturday morning at Road Atlanta. “I went out there on tires from yesterday and felt it out, how the track was,” Aquino told reporters. “I think I was in the 1:31s, but I saw they were going faster than that. I dipped down into the 30s, came in again, made a small change. I saw Danny [Eslick] got down into the 1:29s, then I saw Josh [Herrin] really got down into the 1:29s. I was like, ‘Oh, gees!’ “There was 12 minutes to go, and I had to go back out. I put a new rear on and just went out and did it. I did a 1:29.5. Almost, right? The next lap I did a 1:29.0, and I was like super pumped. And I just decided to go for one more lap, and that was the best lap I ever done around here.” Aquino’s best lap on his Dunlop-shod YZF-R6 was a 1:28.804, which captured pole position by 0.3 second over Team M4 Monster Energy Suzuki’s Martin Cardenas, who was happy with second on the grid because he does not consider himself to be a strong qualifier. Aquino’s teammate Josh Herrin, the Daytona SportBike Championship leader, admitted that he came in early, thinking his 1:29.333 would be good enough to get pole position. When he saw Cardenas and Aquino go quicker he went back out on track but failed to improve his time and ended up with the third spot on the grid. Steve Rapp improved from sixth on Friday to fourth and the front row on Saturday by doing a lap of 1:29.367 on his Latus Motors Racing Ducati 848. Saturday’s 20-lap AMA Pro Daytona SportBike Presented by AMSOIL race starts at 1:45 p.m. local time. AMA Pro Daytona SportBike Presented by AMSOIL Road Atlanta Braselton, Georgia April 17, 2010 Provisional Combined Qualifying Results (all on Dunlop tires): 1. Tommy Aquino (Yam YZF-R6), 1:28.804 2. Martin Cardenas (Suz GSX-R600), 1:29.119 3. Josh Herrin (Yam YZF-R6), 1:29.333 4. Steve Rapp (Duc 848), 1:29.367 5. Cory West (Suz GSX-R600), 1:29.531 6. Danny Eslick (Suz GSX-R600), 1:29.688 7. Clinton Seller (Yam YZF-R6), 1:29.818 8. Dane Westby (Yam YZF-R6), 1:29.864 9. Bobby Fong (Duc 848), 1:30.000 10. Chris Fillmore (Suz GSX-R600), 1:30.245 11. Geoff May (Suz GSX-R600), 1:30.363 12. Jake Holden (Duc 848), 1:30.674 13. Lenny Hale (Yam YZF-R6), 1:31.350 14. Dominic Jones (Yam YZF-R6), 1:31.457 15. P.J. Jacobsen (Suz GSX-R600), 1:31.834 16. Mark Crozier (Duc 848), 1:31.952 17. Barrett Long (Duc 848), 1:32.007 18. Russ Wikle (Suz GSX-R600), 1:32.150 19. Kris Turner (Suz GSX-R600), 1:32.256 20. Fernando Amantini (Kaw ZX-6R), 1:32.384 21. Kyle Wyman (Yam YZF-R6), 1:33.068 22. Andres Londono (Suz GSX-R600), 1:33.529 23. Ryan Clay (Yam YZF-R6), 1:33.707 24. David White (Kaw ZX-6R), 1:33.890 25. Michael Morgan (Suz GSX-R600), 1:34.254 26. Abe Stacey (Suz GSX-R600), 1:34.325 27. Alex Lazo (Yam YZF-R6), 1:35.578 28. Melissa Paris (Yam YZF-R6), 1:35.877 29. Reese Wacker (Suz GSX-R600), 1:36.036 30. Marie-Josee Boucher (Hon CBR600RR), 1:37.439 31. Wes Humphryes (Suz GSX-R600), 1:37.516 110% of Fast Time: 1:37.684