Yamaha USA's Jason DiSalvo (Photo: Brian J Nelson) » More Photos

DiSalvo Breaks Up Spies-Mladin Qualifying 1-2

Yamaha USA's Jason DiSalvo continued his strong sophomore AMA Superbike season this morning at Infineon Raceway, pulling the rare feat of separating Ben Spies and Mat Mladin on the grid by qualifying second fastest overall.

A longtime qualifying standout during his career in the support classes, the New Yorker's fast lap this morning is another indication he's fully coming to grips with his premier class machinery.

DiSalvo later admitted that he tried to 'cheat' his way up the grid before finally posting his 1:35.590 all on his own.

"I was kind of bumming around the track looking for a tow from whoever was willing to give one," DiSalvo explained. "In the middle of the session I was that vagabond rider creeping just off the race line waiting for the fastest guy to come by. I couldn't really pick up a tow and then I saw the time was dwindling down so I said I better just go ahead and try to do this on my own.

"I came in and got a three-lap scrub tire and went out and gave my head a good couple of quick shakes at pit exit to psych myself up like Mat does. I went out and put my head down and rode the wheels off the thing. It was a good lap. The Yamaha was handling really well."

Asked if he could recall the last time Spies and Mladin weren't the top two riders on the grid, DiSalvo shook his head and said, "A long time ago. I don't know."

(Note: It's actually something of a trick question: the last time the two didn't qualify together in the top two was at Laguna Seca in '06, while the last time they didn't actually start 1-2 was at the Mid-Ohio '06 season finale when the grid was established by a combination of heat race results and points standings).