Following two stellar weekends to kick off the season 2005 AMA season, Team M4 EMGO Suzuki came into Friday’s opening day of action at California Speedway in Fontana, CA with high expectations. And while the team put in a solid day’s effort, they came away wanting more.
Vincent Haskovec qualified his Pirelli-shod GSX-R600 Formula Xtreme racer on the front row for tomorrow’s final with a best lap of 1:28.993. However, despite qualifying fourth, the team feels it will need to make improvements overnight if the Czech Republic native is to dice for the win as he did a week ago at Barber Motorsports Park.
Immediately following FX qualifying, Haskovec returned to the 2.3-mile circuit and put his Superstock-spec GSX-R1000 tenth on the provisional Superbike grid with a fast time of 1:26.994. His teammate, Geoff May, wasn’t far back, provisionally qualifying thirteenth for the twin 100k Superbike races at 1:27.572.
Earlier in the day, the two put in time during the morning’s free practices in order to prepare for Saturday’s Superstock and Supersport qualifying heats. Haskovec was tenth fastest in the hour-long Superstock session (1:27.624), while his May was twelfth (1:28.021). May was also twelfth aboard his GSX-R600 Supersport racer, stopping the clocks at 1:30.629.
Crew Chief Keith Perry summed up Team M4 EMGO Suzuki’s Friday at California Speedway. “The day didn’t go as well as what we’ve been accustomed to. Actually, we struggled a bit on every machine that we had. I want to tell you some of it’s because we didn’t get to come test here, but I really don’t think that’s all of it. We’ve got some set-up issues that are totally different from where we’ve been. I think we were finally starting to get a handle on it late this afternoon.”
“But everyone’s working hard, keeping their head up, and keeping a positive attitude,” Perry continued. “The two weekends up until now have been so much better, so much easier. Everybody has been competitive in everything we do. We expect that to continue and we’re disappointed when it’s not. We’re going to work hard to correct that.”
Haskovec will race the 17-lap Formula Xtreme final tomorrow afternoon.
