Doug Chandler was eighth in Saturday morning's practice session at Brainerd. The HMC Ducati squad tried some chassis adjustments in the sesion that did not work.

"Yesterday was good but we tried some things this morning and kinda went backwards," said the 1990 Brainerd WSC winner. "That was what we needed to do to get a better direction."

Chandler sees a good start as critical for the typical Brainerd drafting battle. "You have to go from the start and stay with those guys. The bike, the way it was yesterday, I was happy with it. This afternoon we'll get it back to the way it was and maybe a little better."

Doug swore off qualifying tires after his Road Atlanta test crash, but Chandler has tried the new Dunlop "Q" tire and sees it as an improvement over the older one. "It's definitely a lot better than the old ones. I'd had some misfortunes on the old ones and I'd rather not see them again."