AMA DSB: Aquino Tops Friday Order
Youngster Tommy Aquino was nearly a half-second quicker than any other Daytona SportBike rider on Friday at Infineon Raceway.
Team Graves Yamaha's Tommy Aqunio (Photo: Brian J Nelson)
PROGRAMMING NOTE: The AMA Pro Road Racing action from Sonoma, CA will air on SPEED on Saturday, May 15 at 10:00pm and 11:00pm EST and Sunday, May 16 at 2:00pm EST, and late Sunday/early Monday, May 17 at 12:00am and 1:00am EST.
Team Graves Yamaha's teenage sensation, Tommy Aquino, continued his convincing pre-race form in Friday's qualifying session for the AMA Pro Daytona SportBike races at Infineon Raceway.
The happy-go-lucky Aquino, who claimed his first SportBike pole position at the previous round at Road Atlanta, ruled the charts in the category again this afternoon. Proving capable of guiding his R6 around the undulating Northern California circuit nearly a half-second quicker than any other man in the class today, perhaps this will prove to be the breakthrough weekend for the fast-rising 17-year-old prodigy still seeking his maiden victory.
However, it may take more than just the ability to turn quick laps by himself to get it done, as translating his practice speed into similarly impressive race results hasn't always come easily for Aquino in a class that typically sees multi-rider dogfights develop at the front when the green light shines.
"I go faster by myself, really," Aquino admitted. "No one around, even if I have to give up that motivation or draft offered by having a person in front of me. I just like going out there and putting down hot laps. It's just fun and the Yamaha goes good around this racetrack…
"My strategy for tomorrow is to just go -- leave them all -- but that's probably not going to happen. So I'm just going to have to fight for every position and see if I can get some clean air to put some laps in."
