2006 PRE-SEASON REVIEW
FORMULA XTREME - 133pts (1st Overall) || SUPERSTOCK - 114pts (3rd Overall)
DISALVO ESTABLISHES NEW RECORD IN CONSECUTIVE POLE POSITIONS
PRESS RELEASE NUMBER 12 - 2006
 
At Infineon Raceway in Sonoma CA, Jason DiSalvo of Stafford, NY and Las Vegas, NV extended his streak of consecutive pole positions to 12 in the 1000cc Superstock class while breaking his old track record. He also set a new track record while taking the pole position in the 600cc Formula Extreme class. The weekend was on again off again with weather playing a major role for practices, qualifying and racing. Friday started off with one practice being completely cut, condensing the Saturday practices and qualifying.
 
In qualifying for the 600cc Formula Extreme class Jason was fastest setting a new track record of 1:38.05 seconds. The race began with Jason and one of his teammates breaking away from the field with Jason running second until lap 11 when he took the lead for the next 6 laps. Going into the last section Jason got passed, then made a gallant move to reclaim the lead with almost disastrous results as the machine put him into a violent tank slapper causing him to slow, relegating him to a second place finish. He commented after the race "That bike is going to have to do better than that if it wants to throw me off".
 
The Superstock race was run on Sunday morning with threatening skies. With a less than stellar start, Jason found himself fourth eventually moving to third on lap 6 when disaster struck with a low side crash. Jason's quick recovery allowed him to run to the machine, pick it up, tear off a damaged wind screen, remount the bike, and continue the race in 19th place. The next lap a red flag was thrown to stop the race due to a blown motor of another rider, this opportunity gave Jason and his crew a chance to change tires, make repairs to the damaged bike and prepare for a restart from Row 5. Jason commented "This was a break so on the restart I could again be up with the leaders." Unfortunately the AMA considered the race complete although according to the regulations the race had not been 50% complete. That resulted in Jason having to settle for 19th place leaving him third in the point standings for the Superstock Championship.
 
Jason continues to lead the 600cc Formula Extreme Championship extending his lead to 13 points over second place.
 
The races will be televised Tuesday at 5PM on Speed Channel. The team is leaving today for Salt Lake City, Utah where they will be testing for 2 days at the new Miller Motorsport Park racetrack prior to returning to Las Vegas. The next race is scheduled for Road America, June 2, 3 and 4, 2006.
 

Infineon Formula Extreme Press Conference Transcript
disalvo talks about his big crash
by susan haas
Saturday, May 20, 2006


Jason DiSalvo (#40 Yamaha Racing, second place)

Q Jason, I guess everybody wants to know about the last lap. I don't know what turn that was -

A Seven.

Q Tell us about that. It was an amazing almost-getoff.

A You know, I saw Eric come up the outside of me, and I kind of knew what I was going to do. I was just going to try and stay low on him, and then try to drive him out. But I was giving it gas, and our tires were pretty much gone by the end of the race. We chose - we both chose a soft tire. It was great for getting off the front. I think we had a seven-second gap by lap 5. But then at the end of the race it was getting pretty slippery. I was getting on the gas, and had the thing cranked over, and it just started to come around on me, and I knew if I let off he was going to get ahead of me, and then it would be tough getting back by. So I just opened it up and tried to get the thing to grip, and it just stepped out pretty good, and then it threw me up, and came down, and I came right back down on the seat, and I stayed on the throttle, because I wasn't giving up that easy. The bike's going to have to work harder to throw me off than that. And it spit me up again. I might've done it a third time, I don't know. But I'm going to have to go ice down some areas before the qualifying. I'm pretty sore. It was good that I stayed on. The whole time, I was just thinking, "Points! Points! Points!" as I'm going up, and coming down, and sideways or whatever. Definitely I want to check it out on TV.

Q That crash took a long time ...

A It did. In my mind it took even longer. But it was a good race, though. It was a fantastic race between me and Eric. Someone had to give at the end, and we were just so close, the times were really fast. Even to the end of the race, I think we were still within a half-second of our fast times for the race and everything. So it was good. I was happy with the result, happy to come out with the points lead, and rack up another podium.
For a complete race summary visit www.amasuperbike.com