Tough Breaks for Cardenas and DiSalvo During Fontana Superpole

Team M4 Suzuki showed their strength in race trim on Friday at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California, posting the fastest and fifth fastest laps during AMA Pro Daytona SportBike presented by AMSOIL Basic Qualifying. Team riders Jason DiSalvo and Martin Cardenas weren't as fortunate in the unpredictable Superpole session, but expect to be in contention for the win in Saturday's 21-lap race.

DiSalvo was the last man to go out for Superpole after clocking the best time in Basic Qualifying, registering a 1:28.373 aboard his Suzuki GSX-R600, over three tenths of a second quicker than the next fastest rider. A mistake during his Superpole lap prevented him from equaling the feat, but he still managed to post the fifth overall time at 1:28.843. As a result, he'll start from the third row of the two-rider-per-row allotment that will follow the Safety Car for the rolling start.

"The lap just didn't go our way," the New Yorker explained following Superpole. "We had an unfortunate mistake in turn two and it cost us big time. That's the nature of this qualifying format.

"We're just looking forward to tomorrow's race. We're going to have to do a little bit of work on the start coming from the third row, but I don't think it will be too much of a problem. We just have to work fast and make sure nobody gets away. We're looking really good with our race set-up. We're going to try a couple little things in the morning and hopefully improve the rideability, but other than that, it's looking good."

Colombian ace Cardenas was fifth fastest in Basic Qualifying at 1:29.145. Unfortunately, he missed the chicane during his flying lap and was forced to abort his attempt, dropping him to tenth on the grid.

Despite the disappointment, Cardenas remains upbeat about his race prospects.

He said, "The day went okay. I was feeling okay in practice and qualifying, but in Superpole I missed the first chicane so that was it. I feel we're looking good for the race. We'll use final qualifying as a practice and I think we have to decide on tires yet and adjust a few things with the bike, but so far it's good."

On Saturday morning, with their grid positions already set, Team M4 Suzuki will use AMA Pro Daytona SportBike Final Qualifying as a practice session in order to prepare for the day's 50-mile final, which is scheduled to get underway at 4:00pm local time.