Y.E.S./Pat Clark Sports/Graves Yamaha's Tommy Aquino (Photo: Brian J Nelson)
Y.E.S./Pat Clark Sports/Graves Yamaha's Tommy Aquino ripped around the 2.3-mile New Jersey Motorsports Park at a clip of 1:24.526 on his final go-round to score his first AMA Pro Daytona SportBike pole position of the season this morning.
Aquino's fourth all-time pole only just prevented the surging Cameron Beaubier from securing his first-career SportBike pole. The JHR/RidersDiscount.com youngster will start from second on the grid with a time of 1:24.688 as he and Aquino look to step forward and claim their first class victories later this afternoon.
"We're really hoping this is the weekend," Aquino said. "This is the last weekend to do it. We want to go out with a bang and show them what we've got… I've never felt better. I'm really excited for the race. Today is going to be ridiculous, just looking a the times."
While provisional pole man and points leader Danny Eslick was unable to back up his Friday effort this morning, falling to third, the GEICO Powersports RMR Suzuki pilot's Saturday target became just a bit easier due to rival Josh Herrin's failure to win pole (Herrin will complete the front row, coming back from his Friday bike and tire struggles that uncharacteristically saw him over two seconds off the pace at a track he swept in '09).
Eslick now only needs to finish fourth or better in order to lock down his second AMA Pro Daytona SportBike title a day early.
"We're in a pretty good position to hopefully get out there and stay out of the crazy stuff," Eslick said. "Tommy was rippin' yesterday too -- he towed me to one of my good times. I knew he was going good… We didn't get going nearly as fast as we did yesterday. There was no real reason to risk throwing the thing down the road on race day. We don't need to tear up a good bike and risk wadding myself up."
Row 2 will feature Taylor Knapp, Paul Allison, Dane Westby, and Cory West.
PROGRAMMING NOTE: The AMA Pro Road Racing finale from New Jersey Motorsports Park will air on SPEED tonight at 10:00pm and Sunday, September 4 at 10:00pm ET.
