Article: Spies wins provisional pole

SONOMA -- So much for the value of testing.

Ben Spies, who wasn't one of the 15 riders participating in testing last month at Infineon Raceway, won the provisional pole for today's Kawasaki AMA Superbike Showdown with a lap of 1 minute, 35.840 seconds during Friday qualifying on the hot 2.22-mile road course.

Spies' best time came on his 19th lap and was good enough to edge Suzuki teammate and chief rival Mat Mladin, who was one of the riders here in April. He posted the second-best qualifying time Friday (1:36.423), on his sixth lap.

Spies was able to cut over four-tenths of a second off his best practice lap of 1:36.254 on Friday morning. The second round of Superbike qualifying begins ...

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