Wildcards lead in WSB qualifying

AMA Superbike racer Mat Mladin has stormed to provisional pole position for round eight of the World Superbike championship at Laguna Seca.

Mladin, who rides a GSX-R1000 for the Suzuki Yoshimura AMA Superbike team, took the provisional pole with a time of 1:25.219, 0.3 seconds ahead of Yoshimura team mate Aaron Yates.

Regis Laconi was the highest placed regular rider sitting in third place on the grid 0.6 seconds behind the Australian wildcard.

Giovani Bussei put in a surprise performance in Friday’s qualifying session that only the top three riders managed to beat on Saturday leaving the Italian to finish the front row of the provisional grid.

James Toseland, Frankie Chili, Ruben Xaus and Chris Walker filled up the next four places with championship leader Neil Hodgson relegated to ninth fastest and wildcard Eric Bostrom 10th on a 750cc Kawasaki.

After setting his top time Mladin and the two other wildcard riders pulled out of the session early to prepare for the start of the final round of the US Superbike championship, which is running as a support race for the WSB race on Sunday.

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