Under a white, humid sky in the August of Ohio, Australian Ben Attard took his Attack Kawasaki to a hard-earned second-place finish in the Formula Xtreme race on Saturday afternoon, at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, in Lexington, Ohio. Attard finished 5.4 seconds behind race-winner Josh Hayes, and barely a bike length in front of third-place finisher Chaz Davies, which translates out to about a hundredth of a second. During much of the race Attard battled with his Attack Kawasaki teammate, Steve Rapp, trading second place a couple times on their ZX-6Rs shod with Pirelli Diablo Superbike Slicks. By race’s end, Rapp encountered problems and finished ninth, his lowest finish of the season. With three races remaining Steve Rapp is second in Formula Xtreme points and Attard is fifth. Today's FX race marked Pirelli's 16th podium in 2007 inhe AMA Superbike series.

In Supersport qualifying, Pirelli riders earned three places on row two for Sunday’s race with Ben Attard leading the group on his Attack Kawasaki at fourth-fastest. Steve Rapp, also, of course, on an Attack Kawasaki ZX-6R, is sixth on the grid with M4 EMGO Suzuki’s Geoff May sandwiched between those two with his fifth-place-earning qualifying performance and leading time for a Suzuki GSX-R600. The gap between the top qualifier and seventh on the grid is just over three tenths of a second, promising for a close race on Sunday, check you local listings. The Attack Kawasaki riders qualified on regular Pirelli Diablo Supercorsa DOT racing tires, not qualifying tires.

Superstock qualifying had M4 EMGO Suzuki’s Geoff May earn the first place on the outside of row two of the grid, with the fifth-fastest time of the session. Also on row two is Chris Ulrich on his Roadracingworld.com Suzuki, having set the eighth-fastest qualifying time. Ulrich’s teammate, Robertino Pietri will be starting Sunday’s Superstock race from row three, earned by setting the tenth-fastest time in qualifying. Next to Pietri is HALOF Racing’s Scott Jensen, nabbing yet another top qualifying position for the Pirelli Diablo Superbike Slicks.


from Peter Jones at Pirelli press