The opening salvo has been fired at Daytona…The AMA was able to get in a full morning of practice before rain called a halt to the proceedings around noon. The rain prevented qualifying for the Supersport and Superstock races but the practice times offered up a few surprises..

In Superbike practice, it was the Suzukis that dominated the session with Ben Spies clocking the best time by laying down a 1:40.505. Mladin was nearly a half second back in second with a 1:40.933 and Yates followed his two teammates with a 1:41.166. It is hard to read anything into practice times, since you never really know who is still working on a setup and who has already found the setup. Still, the guys that can setup their bike while running fast times are often the ones that can run fast times later in the weekend. Clearly the Yosh crew will be strong come race day.

The real surprise, at least among the big bikes, is that Jason Disalvo turned a 1:40.621 on his Superstock Yamaha R1. That makes him the second fastest rider circulating at Daytona today. Clearly the kid is serious and the bike is fast. Spies feels that the Superbike pace will drop into the 1:38s, if they do their qualifying on a dry track, so we’ll have to see if the Superstock guys have anything left or if DiSalvo’s time shows the high water mark for the Superstock bikes. For the moment, the gap between Superbike and Superstock, at least at Daytona, is looking pretty slim.

With the smaller bikes, the situation is even more clear though not necessarily as surprising. Like last year, the “stock” Supersport bikes are actually lapping on the opening day faster than the “built” Formula Xtreme bikes. FX only had one practice session while most of the Supersport bikes used the first Daytona 200 practice (since the 200 is running Formula Xtreme bikes this year) for extra track time in addition to their own morning practice. When the Formula Xtreme practice was called to an early halt due to rain, it was the Supersport bikes which dominated the top of the time charts. The fast Supersport bike was Jason Disalvo with a 1:44.242. The fastest FX bike was Josh Hayes a half second back in forth with a 1:44.646. The next FX bike was a full second off Disalvo’s time. Another eye opener was that the factory Hondas, the only true factory bikes racing Formula Xtreme, finished the morning practice in 8th and 16th. Ouch! Clearly the Formula Xtreme bikes find themselves once again struggling to turn the laps of the stockers.

It is possible that the reason for this gap is that the FX bikes have to go 68 laps while the Supersport bikes only have to churn out 22. Or maybe the FX bikes will improve their numbers when they get more track time. However, it is just as likely that the majority of the factories have chosen Supersport as the arena to duke it out with 600s and thus aren’t putting the development (or riders, or crew) into FX teams. Whatever the cause, if the AMA is ever going to realize its apparent goal of having Superbike spec 600s replace the current liter size Superbike class, they need to see a lot more performance and a lot more buy-in from the other factories.

Because of the rain today, the grids for the Supersport and Superstock races tomorrow will be grided based first on a rider’s finishing order in last season’s series and second based on the order of entry form for this year. This is really going to help some of the riders like Kawasaki’s Roger Lee Hayden who crashed today and would normally be gridded at the back of Supersport but now gets the #2 spot. Conversely, it is going to crush other riders like Aaron Yates, Pascal Picotte, Jason Pridmore and Geoff May who either didn’t run Supersport/Superstock last year or who are on more competitive machinery this year than last. It will also be a set back to privateers that were hoping to make a good showing during a one-off ride at Daytona but now find themselves stuck near the back of grids with 33 (Superstock) or 61 (Supersport) riders.

What is clear from the practice times in both Supersport and Superstock is that the front runners will likely be the same as last year: the factory Yamaha and factory Kawasaki riders and they will be gridded at the front anyway. The lack of qualifying may change some finishing positions but it won’t likely affect the podium.

Despite the first day’s drama, it should still make for some super racing tomorrow.

[image from the Daytona International Speedway web site.]