Ben Young will take a bit of momentum into Friday afternoon’s BS Battery qualifying session, after topping the Pro Superbike morning practice at Atlantic Motorsport Park.
The 40-minute session saw Young and rival Alex Dumas exchange fastest laps numerous times, with Dumas holding the provisional top spot for much of the practice period. The two quickly ramped up their times near the end, however, with Young ultimately posting the top mark at a 1:08.061 lap time.
The Van Dolder’s Home Team BMW rider may be less focused on his one-lap pace and more pleased with his long stints in the session, as Young ran consistently in the mid-1:08 times across his 24 laps – something that has often proved to be necessary around the punishing AMP circuit.
Dumas was less consistent in his race pace but looked just as fast over one lap, finishing only 0.088 seconds slower than Young after leading the field through Thursday’s test. The Liqui Moly/Fast School Suzuki rider has found more and more form around the twisty 1.2 km “rollercoaster,” but will still find himself on the back foot entering the afternoon qualifying sessions.
The third-fastest spot in the session went to a familiar face in Trevor Daley, who continues to ramp up his pace himself as he winds up just less than a second off the front two.
The OneSpeed/Pro Cycle rider will have his eyes set on another front-row start for this weekend’s doubleheader, something that proved to be decisive for him in 2019 at AMP as he grabbed the holeshot and led much of the race afterwards.
Michael Leon put in a late flying lap to move to fourth-fastest ahead of qualifying, posting a 1:09.653 aboard his Royal Distributing BMW. Leon will lead a close group of riders in the midfield as they attempt to chase down Daley and company, one which includes the Turcotte Performance Kawasaki of Sebastien Tremblay, who ended the morning fifth-fastest with just a second covering the next five riders.
The BS Battery qualifying and subsequent Top-Ten Superpole are scheduled to kick off at roughly 3 pm AT (2 pm ET), ahead of two feature Superbike races on Saturday and Sunday, presented by Pro Cycle, Kawasaki, and Arai.
