Graves Yamaha’s Ben Bostrom won the dramatic, first-ever AMA Pro Daytona SportBike SuperPole event to decide the pole position for the 68th Daytona 200 by Honda under the lights Thursday night at Daytona International Speedway. Seconds after Bruce Rossmeyers/RMR Buell’s Danny Eslick claimed the provisional pole position with a lap of 1:50.352, Bostrom and his YZF-R6 ripped around the 3.51-mile infield road course in a time of 1:50.240 to capture the second Daytona 200 pole position of his career. But Bostrom’s lap was not perfect. “The bike’s pretty special. It makes up for my mistakes,” said Bostrom, who also earned pole position for the Daytona 200 in 2003. “The rider made a bit of an error there. I hit the brakes going into the kink [a.k.a. dogleg], which is pretty silly. For some reason I thought I was gonna go right [onto the 2.95-mile Short Course, which he had been riding on all day], but I was on the wrong side of the track so I figured it out. ‘Oh my gosh! I think we just gave this thing away!’ But I wasn’t too upset. I knew we had a good starting spot, but I was pretty surprised when I came around and saw the number on top of the [scoring trilon].” Asked for a preview of the first-ever nighttime Daytona 200, scheduled for tomorrow night, Bostrom said, “It’s going to be interesting at night. It’s a little bit more difficult to see and it seems like this humidity comes in making the track a little bit greasier at night. It should be a little more spectacular with the bikes sliding around. You just don’t know what’s going to happen.” A total of 74 riders made the qualifying cut-off for the 68th Daytona 200 by Honda. AMA Pro Racing AMA Pro Daytona SportBike Presented by AMSOIL Daytona International Speedway Daytona Beach, Florida March 5, 2009 Provisional SuperPole Results (3.51-mile course, all on Dunlop tires): 1. Ben Bostrom (Yam YZF-R6), 1:50.240 2. Danny Eslick (Buell 1125R), 1:50.352 3. Jason DiSalvo (Suz GSX-R600), 1:50.363 4. Jamie Hacking (Kaw ZX-6R), 1:50.466 5. Josh Hayes (Yam YZF-R6), 1:50.520 6. Martin Cardenas (Suz GSX-R600), 1:50.520 7. Josh Herrin (Yam YZF-R6), 1:51.296 8. Jake Zemke (Hon CBR600RR), 1:51.328 9. Dane Westby (Yam YZF-R6), 1:51.592 10. Chris Peris (Hon CBR600RR), 1:52.160 More, from a press release issued by Daytona International Speedway: Yamaha’s Ben Bostrom Takes Pole For 68th Daytona 200 By Honda Yoshimura Suzuki’s Mat Mladin Captures American Superbike Opening Round DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. Ben Bostrom put his Yamaha YZF-R6 on the pole for the 68th Daytona 200 By Honda on Thursday night at Daytona International Speedway. “We’ve worked very hard and we intend to win this,” Bostrom said after turning the pole-winning lap of one minute, 50.240 seconds, 115.929 mph on the 3.51-mile course. Bostrom, who was the last rider to take to the track during the new Superpole qualifying format, bested Buell rider Danny Eslick, who posted a lap of 1:50.352, 115.811 mph to take the outside pole. For Bostrom, it’s his second career Daytona 200 By Honda pole. The Daytona 200 By Honda, the season opening event to the AMA Pro Daytona SportBike class, is being held under the lights for the first time in event history on Friday night at 8 p.m. “It should be a little more spectacular “¦ bikes sliding around,” Bostrom said. “You just don’t know what’s going to happen.” Taking second row honors is Team M4 Suzuk’s Jason DiSalvo and Attack Kawasaki’s Jamie Hacking. AMA Pro American Superbike Yoshimura Suzuki’s Mat Mladin continued Suzuk’s successes at Daytona by holding off Corona Honda’s Neil Hodgson and Yoshimura Suzuki teammate Tommy Hayden to win the AMA Pro American Superbike 15-lap season opener. “Obviously its nice to get any win,” Mladin, rider of the No. 7 Rockstar/Makita Suzuki GSX-R1000, said. “It was nice to get one today for Suzuki and keep that Suzuki win streak alive.” Yoshimura Suzuki has now won the past six Superbike season-opening events at DIS. “I sort of tried to go at the start, I just couldn’t get down to the sort of lap times that I really thought I may be able to and the guys were close enough coming out of the chicane to be able to pull past,” said Mladin, who won the pole earlier in the day. “Then at half way, there really wasn’t anything happening out there so I just thought I’d try and get back to the front and push as hard as I could and at least try and have a bit of a gap leading out of the chicane and I think that’s what happened.” Hodgson nipped Hayden by .001 seconds for second place. “I’m pleased with second,” Hodgson said. “It was really close obviously, as it always is.” AMA Pro Supersport While Russ Wikle and Joey Pascarella battled for the lead throughout the 12-lap AMA Pro Supersport event at DIS, Erion Racing’s Tyler Odom hung back in third and waited for his chance to strike. With two laps remaining, Odom’s No. 47 Honda shot past both Wikle’s No. 5 Roadracingworld.com Suzuki and Pascarella’s No. 25 Yamaha to take the lead and held on to clinch the win by a margin of .311 seconds. “Yeah, I had to make some aggressive passes,” said the 16-year-old Odom. “I hoped to catch them on the infield. I figured that if I could get around them for it, then I could pull enough bike lengths to not have to worry about trying to draft around them.” Pascarella took runner-up honors and Wikle settled for third. For tickets to Daytona 200 Week By Honda, go online at www.daytonainternationalspeedway.com or call 1-800-PITSHOP.