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 time of 1:35.840 during Friday qualifying on the brutally warm 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 on Friday (1:36.423) on his sixth lap.

Spies was able to cut over four-tenths of a second off his best practice lap time of 1:36.254 on Friday morning. The second round of Superbike qualifying begins today at 9:30 a.m. with the race slated for 3:30 p.m.

"We missed the testing here so that creates some catching up, but the bike is good," said Spies, who also earned the pole at last month's first Superbike race at Fontana. "It's hot out here right now, but the bike is working well. We need a good weekend right now with where we are in the points."

Mladin leads Spies 178-158 in the Superbike standings after five races. Mladin has three Superbike wins this season and eight career wins at Infineon, including two last year. Spies won both races in 2006 and may need another sweep of this weekend's doubleheader to stay within striking distance of Mladin.

"Usually you try to work into things and go lap-by-lap (after missing a test)," Spies said. "But we just tested last

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week at (Miller Motorsports Park in Utah), and I would rather ride a week before at a different track than have a test here a few months ago."

Jason DiSalvo qualified third (1:36.600) and Petaluma native Eric Bostrom was fourth (1:36.655) to round out the front row. DiSalvo crashed midway through morning practice but was able to use the same bike for qualifying when track temperatures reached 136 degrees.

"Everybody's looking to (improve) their times (Saturday) morning for second qualifying," said DiSalvo who is fourth in the Superbike standings with 137 points. "That's going to be when the fast times come, and (when) the track cools off, the grip will come up a little bit."

The right formula

San Francisco native Jake Zemke won the pole position for today's Formula Xtreme race with a lap time of 1:36.853, which broke the previous track record of 1:37.244 set by Josh Hayes last year. Zemke won the Formula Xtreme race at Infineon in 2005 and competed mainly in Superbike the last two years. His best results in 2007 were a second-place finish in Utah and three third-place finishes, including one at Sonoma. Zemke leads the FX standings with 94 points after wins in Alabama and Fontana.

"This morning we were struggling a little bit to get the bike to do what I wanted it to do, but the crew made some changes and the bike was 100 times better," said Zemke, whose best lap time in practice Friday morning was 1:37.960.

Steve Rapp (1:37.185), Hayes (1:37.678) and Chaz Davies (1:37.979) round out the front row. Walnut Creek's Berto Wooldridge qualified 21st (1:44.765).

Loose part

Aaron Yates ran the fastest time in Friday's Superstock practice (1:37.537), which continues today at 8:30 a.m. before qualifying at 12:45 p.m. San Ramon's Rick McDaniel ran a practice time of 1:46.463 and was 27th fastest.