M4 Saturday Report
Team M4 Monster Energy Suzuki is anticipating a strong race day performance tomorrow at Laguna Seca in front of a huge MotoGP/AMA weekend crowd following an outstanding team effort during qualifying on Saturday.
Jake Holden and Martin Cardenas continued their Friday form by securing positions on the front row for Sunday’s AMA Pro American Superbike and Daytona SportBike races, while Chris Ulrich earned a second row Superbike qualifying result of his own.
Holden, a past Superstock race winner at Laguna Seca, is aiming to pilot the team’s GSX-R1000 to a podium result before handing it back over to former Grand Prix star John Hopkins.
Working diligently with the team to cure front-end feel issues that have plagued him on the bike, Holden enters Sunday’s 23-lap race confident after clocking the third best time in Superbike qualifying at 1:24.612.
Jake Holden says: "This matches my best ever Superbike qualifying result," Holden said. "It feels pretty good doing it at the MotoGP round at Laguna. This track has always been one of my favorite tracks.
"We made quite a few changes there at the end — a shock change and we went out on a used tire and still did some high ’24s, so I’m feeling pretty good for the race. We’ve got the bike set up pretty close to what we’re looking for and the M4 Monster Energy Suzuki guys have been working hard the last two or three rounds to get me a little bit more front-end feel on the bike and I think we’re set pretty good."
Cardenas is similarly confident about his race set-up on the team’s GSX-R600 SportBike racer. The Colombian also ranked third best in qualifying, posting a 1:27.482.
Martin Cardenas (who started from pole position at Laguna Seca last year) says: "The session went pretty well. I was trying to get pole again this year but it wasn’t possible. The top two guys were very fast today; I tried my best but I couldn’t do it, but I think for the race we have a really good set-up. We’ve already decided what tires we’re going to use. Tomorrow morning we might try something a little different to see if we can go a little faster, but I just hope for a good race and we’ll go for the podium."
Ulrich also put in an impressive qualifying performance on Saturday, registering the eighth fastest time despite facing what is likely the most competitive field of the ’10 AMA Superbike season.
Chris will start on the outside of the second row on the strength of his 1:25.720 lap time.
The 50-mile Daytona SportBike race will take place at 10:25am local time Sunday morning with the 50-mile American Superbike final rounding out the combined MotoGP/AMA weekend on Sunday afternoon at 3:45pm.
