Parts Unlimited Ducati's Ben Bostrom qualified on the provisional front row at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course on Friday. The veteran Superbike star was an impressive fourth in the afternoon qualifying session at the resurfaced track. His teammate Neil Hodgson finished fifth, just behind Bostrom's 999 Superbike on the timing charts.
Bostrom and his team methodically worked on his settings rather than set one quick lap on soft rubber. Ben said he was pleased with his progress so far during the weekend. His best time was 1:26.376. "Today was a pretty good day at the track," said Ben Bostrom. "It was a good start for the event. We're not done with our race setup yet, so we thought we would save our qualifiers until tomorrow. I was trying to see exactly how fast we could go on a race tire but we caught a little traffic at the last of the lap. We're looking forward to improving things a little more and trying to stay on the front row, maybe move higher in the order if possible. Still, we are happy with the result today."
Neil Hodgson was next in the order, just 0.015 behind his teammate. Neil's times on race tires showed he is once again in contention for a podium spot in the weekend's races. "It went quite well for us. It was good to get a full day's practice and testing in, instead of what we had at Laguna Seca," said Hodgson. "It's good to try some tires, some different settings, and have some laps to get used to the track. I'm quite pleased. I definitely like the circuit a lot better this year than last year. I'd say officially that Mid-Ohio was my worst track last year. I'm still riding a little tense over some of the elevation changes but I can improve on that tomorrow. A couple of tweaks to the settings and then we will be ready. We'll also try a better combination of tires. Today, when I had the front tire I liked, I was using my least favorite rear and vice-versa."
Final qualifying is scheduled for 9:50 and the 26-lap race begins at 4:00 local time.
Qualifying times: 1. Ben Spies, Suzuki 1:25.330
2. Mat Mladin, Suzuki 1:25.442
3. Jake Zemke, Honda 1:25.795
4. Ben Bostrom, Parts Unlimited Ducati 1:26.376
5. Neil Hodgson, Parts Unlimited Ducati 1:26.391
6. Miguel Duhamel, Honda 1:26.528
7. Jason Pridmore, Suzuki 1:26.593
8. John Haner, Suzuki 1:26.917
9. Aaron Yates, Suzuki 1:27.138
10. Jake Holden, Suzuki 1:27.345
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