AMA Superbike Press Conference
Pike's Peak International Raceway
Pole: Mat Mladin
2. Ben Bostrom
3. Aaron Yates
4. Doug Chandler

(Editor's note this press conference was dominated by discussion of the last lap move in qualifying where Mat Mladin allegedly intentionally blocked Ben Bostrom. Several other Suzuki riders were said to have blocked Bostrom on the last lap, and Suzuki had a employee in the vicinity of the VHRD pits to tell the team via radio when Bostrom was going out on his fast lap with a qualifyier. Mladin waited right by the VHRD pits for Bostrom to go out.)
Thanks to Maggie for the transcribe.

Q: Why don't you explain what happened right there at the on the last lap? Ben's fast lap.

Mat: I don't know. I saw Ben putting a qualifier on, he'd already used one, so we stuck one on and followed him out. He came in the pits so I couldn't chase him, I was just hoping to get a quicker lap time.  I waited for him again and he didn't want to go with me again, I was just trying to get a quicker lap time.

Q: You waited for him, right here, after he came into the pits, and then what hope did you have of getting fast lap cause, I mean, there was the checkered flag?

Mat: I didn't know what the time was.

Q: Overall for tomorrow, you feel the bike and everything is the way you need it?
Mat: Yeah, the bike feels pretty good. I'm pretty happy with it. Yeah, the thing is running good, the race tires feel good, everything feels good. It's a shame Ben's so upset about not getting the pole. I mean, they tested just eight days ago so they should have been up to speed and yesterday he didn't have the timer on his bike so he shouldn't have gotten the pole yesterday either, but he did.
You know, that's just the way it goes. Funny things happened in the last couple of weeks. Obviously with Ducati here testing Tuesday, Wednesday. I didn't believe that would be was right. I thought, I always counted Friday as the first day of the event as it's a point up for pole.  I figure that's going to be the first day of the event. There's obviously a lot of controversy going around about that and it doesn't seem like anything's going to be done about it. I think that's wrong.
Then the same thing yesterday. Ben didn't have a transponder on and he got the lap time and I didn't think that was right. As much as the photo finish or whatever gave him the lap time but in most instances or in all cases and I know with myself once this year I got pulled in to put a transponder on. I know a number of a cases, like Doug in Daytona got held in the pits for fifteen minutes without a transponder and because he didn't have one and then all of a sudden at the last race somebody gets a lap time without a transponder. I personally don't think that's the right thing to do. Transponders are a necessity as far as going for lap times so I think we got ripped off yesterday for the pole.
Like I said there's been some funny things happening in the last couple of weeks. I don't think it's helped our chances in the championship one bit. I think we're getting a bit of a raw deal on the whole bit.

Q: At this point, obviously the pole point is important?

A: Yeah, it was important, every point is important at this stage of the game. I've been steamed a little bit about the whole thing since they were here testing eight days ago. So that doesn't sit well with me. I'm pretty angry about that. I came here pretty determined to get the pole.  Whatever it takes to do that, I'll do it.

Q: Were you surprised you were able to go faster today? I thought the track conditions looked more favorable yesterday?

Mat: I think they were more favorable yesterday, but we sort of didn't quite get it right. Today we've got it pretty right. We thought it might take a couple tenths quicker than that. I think Aaron just missed, I think, fortunately which gives us that extra point. Yeah, I think we did a good job today and we're set up for tomorrow.

Ben Bostrom

Dean Adams: Let's hear your side.

Ben: It's just something that riders do when they get pretty desperate. I just want to say I'd never, ever want to win anything like that. I wouldn't feel good about it for the rest of my life.

Mat: You won the pole yesterday like that.

Q: On the cool off lap, you were having a little gesturing with Mat.

Ben: Well, the team tactics were pretty poor so I apologize for the gesture I made to the guys on the wall. It's not their fault. It's just that I was pretty upset with Mat. It was something that was real bad sportsmanship.

Q: Prior to that, did you feel like you left that last run a little too late?

Ben: No, actually it was a perfect because there was no one on the track. We wanted to get out there in the last minute, it was just absolutely perfect. We caught Mat in the esses and he was weaving around a bit.

Q: You all set for tomorrow?

Ben: Yes.

Aaron Yates

Dean Adams: Where've you been stranger?

Aaron: I don't know. It really feels kind of weird sitting up here. It's like Wow! I don't know, I've been struggling. This weekend we've got Vic Fasola working on my bike and what he's done I think it's really helped a lot. I've had a tendency to go a certain way with my setup. For some reason this year most of the time when we get to the track the bike everything is totally different than it was and we have to start from that and work all around and never get things right. Right from the start Vic found a couple of things and set it up in little ways. I guess things he's familiar with, he's been working with on this thing for a pretty good awhile.
The Kawasaki's been good to me all weekend. We had it going really good yesterday, but the qualifier didn't do much for me yesterday. A lot of these guys put on a qualifier and go a second faster. It's unreal but today we struggled a lot with grip. We had the same setup as yesterday, we couldn't figure it out and right as with twenty minutes to go in the session, we tried a different shock that we'd almost skipped over and decided not to mess with it. But we did and it made the difference. I got back into the 55s and got back going good again. Put a qualifier on, went out, got a red flag and came right in. It worked out just right. I guess I did about three laps, came in got a fresh one, went back out there. I had a pretty free track on that last one. It could have been a little better but I slipped up in a couple of spots but I'm happy to be on the front row for sure. I put a nice little pass on Mike Smith there, it was pretty neat.

Q: You said the bike's changed lot since Vic's been doing it?

Aaron: Well, just little things, just the set up. There's so many things on the bike that can change. He kind of backed up a few things and changed some stuff.  It's helped. He's made little, very fine changes instead of making big changes.

Doug Chandler

Q: All year you've struggled when you've had to put dual compound tires. Is that something that will give you trouble here?

Doug: No, I won't be using them.

Q: Will the tire that you use last the race?

Doug: So far it's been okay. We really don't have anything to lose. So we're going to take a gamble, try something and hopefully I can manage the tire and go the whole distance.

Q: Did you try a dual compound here at all?

Doug: Yeah, I ran them, I think, I've tried two of them. It's something that's just I don't know, I can't seem to get it to work for me so I've got to go back to a more standard tire. When I'm using that I'm a lot happier, I feel a lot better on the bike.