Team Austin Ducati rider Pascal Picotte was seventh fastest in this morning's Superbike practice. From the Team Austin garage area he commented a few moments ago, "It's going okay. We had a fast time in the morning session today. Yesterday we struggled with some problems--some mechanical failures--so we could not put as many laps in as we wanted to. Today we could actually stay out there much longer and get some good lap times. Then I got on the second bike just to see if everything is okay, but there was another electrical issue. So I could not put much time on it. Still the first bike we ran today was much better than yesterday."

"The overall package is much better that's why we ended up going a bit faster."

Tires are the talk of the paddock this weekend as usual. Like the Ducati factory, Picotte's team uses Michelin rubber. He thinks he has a tire that will go the distance. "It's working pretty good," he said. "I think we have a good rear tire selected, I'm not sure about the front. It's not that it's not good--it's just my confidence level is not high enough yet it. But it is coming and we're making progress. We're not going backwards."

Picotte got some track time at the recent VIR test although it is difficult to judge whether he feels it was a good test or not."We did okay there. We had a couple of problems there also. And some of the tires I felt comfortable on--there were not enough of them. So I wasn't able to get good seat time and build my confidence with the Michelin tire. It was still good to be there and test-- we got to try a lot of different things on the bike, like the geometry, suspension stuff. We learned a lot and I was able to find the sweet spot on the motorcycle for me."