Larry Pegram (#72 Foremost Insurance Ducati, third quick at 1:38.455):

Q Larry, you've had incredible speed all week, and that obviously held up for Superpole. Talk about how you feel your lone Ducati stacks up against the competition.

A It's good. The bike's really good. I think we're ahead of the game right now on most of the guys. A lot of teams, like Suzuki, they're running their old bikes - or their '08 bikes, I guess, they're not their old bikes. They can't run their old bikes. But I think we have an advantage right now, because our bike's pretty well developed. We're not going to make any more power throughout the season, really, than we have now. We have the full spec engine, and we have everything done to it. So I think we're ahead of everybody right now a little bit. That's nice at this racetrack, for sure.

Q How much Superpole experience have you had, and how'd you like it?

A If you look at it, I've probably got a lot of experience at it, because I used to dirt track, and it was all time trials, is what they call it, which is the same thing. You go out of the pits and make a warmup lap, and you get one lap. But I haven't done that for a long time. And I did a couple of World Superbike events at Laguna and stuff. So I've done Superpole a little bit. But I think out of all the places to do Superpole, this is probably one of the hardest ones, just because the tires are so hard. You're hesitant, the first lap, to really go hard on the thing. You're kind of like - you would almost like to do two warmup laps, I think you'd see - I'd be more comfortable. But other than that, it went pretty good.

Neil Hodgson (#100 Corona Honda, fourth quick at 1:38.479):

Q How long does it take for the tires to come up, and how long do they last for you?

A Well, the race is only 15 laps, luckily, so the tires are lasting pretty good. There's no issues with that. But like Larry said, if you're slightly hesitant on the first lap - I have been - every time you go out, the tires are so hard, obviously they make them hard for Daytona. That's the first time I've gone out and really pushed on the first lap, and I was surprised how fast I went, obviously. And then obviously I'm more surprised when I saw how fast Mat went. "Sh*t, that's a good time." Obviously I guess we all knew that Mat would be the man that we'd all be chasing. No surprises there. So we'll see what the rest of the day brings.

Q Talk about your Corona Honda, and how it compares to the Ducati, as well as the Suzukis that are in P1 and P2.

A I think the machine's as good as any of those out there. It's going to be interesting to see how the race goes. I don't really know - I've not really been on the track with too many people, well, these guys, anyway, sort of slipstreaming and stuff. So we'll sort of see how it goes. I'll try and get a good start and get stuck in there, really.

Mat Mladin (#7 Rockstar Makita Suzuki, pole position at 1:37.499):

Q Mat, what's the track like for you, and how are you feeling?

A It was a good lap for us. We've had to acclimate with the bike fairly quickly. It's a brand new bike for us here this week. It goes to show how good of a sportbike Suzuki makes. We pulled it out of the truck and gone reasonably quick. It's pretty hard to talk lap times. As far as that, my lap times are a couple of seconds slower than last year, but obviously the bike's very different. We're reasonably happy, and things are looking okay for the race. It's only a short one, so we'll try and get through it. I've got a 6:00 flight, so hopefully I'll make it.

Tommy Hayden (#22 Rockstar Makita Suzuki, second quick at 1:38.345)

Q Tommy, P2, good effort today. Talk about Superpole and what you think it'll bring to the American Superbike championship here.

A It's different for me. It's the first time I ever did it, so it's definitely mentally a little bit tough to get ready to go like that, right out of the gate. Here, you miss a big section of the track on the out lap, so you're doing part of the track, more than the first split, for the first time. So it's definitely difficult. But I enjoyed it. It added a little bit of intensity to the weekend that we usually don't have. I thought it was pretty cool. I liked it.

Q I'll open it up for questions.

HODGSON: I have something to say. Do they not - are they not going to show Superpole? I thought the whole idea of the show of Superpole was to actually televise it, so we can all go "Ooooh" and "Aaaah" when you're watching it.

MODERATOR: You'll see highlights of it on the primetime show that'll premiere on the 21st.

HODGSON: Right. 21st.

MODERATOR: March 21st. There'll definitely be highlights on there.

Q I have an unrelated question. Mat, were you surprised at the speed that Ben Spies showed at the World Superbike races?

A No, not at all. I've raced the guy for the last few years. There's always these comparisons that go on. You can never compare. Series compared to series and all that sort of stuff. But I think the pace of the American series is pretty quick. I think he showed those guys that what's been happening over here is fair dinkum. I've been asked how I think he's going to go this year a number of times in the past few months, and my answer's been I think he's going to be World Champion with two rounds to spare. We'll see. That's just my belief.

Q Mat, your lap in Superpole is a fair bit quicker than you've gone so far this week. What do you attribute that to? Did you just get the bit between your teeth and go? Or what was it?

A Superpole's there to kind of do one fast lap, so you have to give it everything that you've got. So that's what we did. We made a couple changes from this morning, in qualifying, or just earlier in qualifying, and the bike felt reasonable. So I just pushed a little bit. So yeah. It was a pretty decent lap.

Q Tom, can you compare riding last year's bike to riding this year's bike?

A It's a lot different. I've got that question a lot, and it's just entirely different feeling, really, all the way around. There's not - not really easy to pinpoint anything. The bike's just tamer and definitely less powerful, and it's easier to ride. I think for those reasons, those reasons, why we're, probably speeds are down a little bit, and some things like that. So it's different. This bike's good. It's fun to ride. I enjoy it. It's easier to ride for me. There's a lot different, hard to pinpoint exactly what.

Q Neil, I'm curious about the spec of the bike that you ran back in December at the tire test, and today. How much evolution there's been, and how do you feel the bike was back then versus what you're riding today?

A It's pretty similar, really. Maybe probably about a few brake horse quicker. That's all. I think the tires seemed better at the tire test. When we came here, we definitely how more grip. Now, there's - well, with two tires at the tire test, one of them was rubbish and the other was pretty good, actually. And then come in here, the race tires, there's not a lot of grip, so everyone's spinning around and stuff. I think that's why the lap times are a bit iffy, as well. Obviously the bikes are down on power, but I think grip's a massive issue, as well.

Q Neil, you have the most Superpole experience here. How do you think things went today?

A All right. I think you've just sort of missed the concept of it. The concept of Superpole is, it's pretty exciting for everybody to watch live, there and then. It's the most boring thing to watch after, when you know the result, watching one guy ride round on his own. Sighting pit lane, watching a guy go across the stripe and looking at the splits, is not very exciting. I understand the concept of it, obviously. It works. But not the way that we're doing it at the moment. So I think maybe the organizers should actually think about what they're doing.