Sears Point: Austin Ducati Friday qualifying notes

Bostrom On Provisional 2nd Row As Ducati 999 Makes Infineon Raceway Debut

Parts Unlimited Ducati Austin's Eric Bostrom piloted the Ducati 999 to a creditable sixth position on its first-ever practice and qualifying sessions at a sunny Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, California. The 27-year-old Las Vegas rider spent much of the half-hour session on the provisional front row in fourth position before finishing up in sixth.

"We were slow this morning and even though that can be discouraging, it's really more encouraging how far we've come," said Bostrom. "At first we had the bike set up too soft and I couldn't get any feel. In the afternoon we made big gains on the set-up to where it now wants to stay pointing through the turns. These changes gave me a lot more feel with the Michelins and I made up a second and half on the race tires from this morning's practice time - I'm pretty sure we can make up that much more time again tomorrow.

"This is a new experience for me on the Ducati because it's a track where it's just corner after corner after corner. The new surface is also something I'm getting used to. I feel pretty good about tomorrow, though. There's a lot going on but we're really getting it sorted out."

"It's the first time we've been here and our goal is to find a good race set-up and also to pick out the right tire," explained Technical Engineer Ernesto Marinelli. Qualifying isn't a concern for us; we didn't use a qualifying tire since our complete focus is on the race. This is a challenging race track for a set-up because of the dips so you need a very particular set-up here. Something that works here won't work anywhere else. We're just going to go step by step and make improvements every time we go out."

Final qualifying concludes tomorrow morning with race 1 (100km - 28 laps) of the weekend doubleheader taking place in the afternoon.

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