If you didn’t know better, you’d wonder why there was a crowd around the Warhorse HSBK Racing Ducati pit prior to the start of Motovation Supersport Q1 on Friday at Ridge Motorsports Park. If you poked around a bit, you would have seen Alessandro Di Mario, clad in brand-new Fast By Ferracci/Warhorse leathers, preparing to take his first public laps on the team’s Ducati Panigale V2.
Di Mario didn’t take part in Friday morning’s practice session but was instead thrown in the deep end on Friday afternoon. And he did just fine, thank you very much, ending up 12th fastest and just 2.6 seconds off provisional pole sitter Mathew Scholtz and his Strack Racing Yamaha YZF-R9.
Celtic/Economy Lube+Tire/Warhorse HSBK Ducati’s Di Mario was a late entry, joining Cameron Petersen on the team with an eye to the future.
Di Mario did 13 laps on the V2 with his best lap coming on his last lap, a 1:44.825.
“Well, it’s a lot faster than the Twin,” Di Mario said. “It feels a little different and it needs a little getting used to, but it was really fun for sure.”
The Twin Di Mario is referring to is the Robem Engineering Aprilia RS 660 that he has raced to the top of the SC-Project Twins Cup Championship. So, is he going to pull double duty and race the Panigale V2 this coming weekend?
“Maybe,” the 16-year-old said. “I don’t know what they are thinking over there (at the Ducati truck), but I want to race it. I also have to focus on the Twins. I’m not battling for the championship over there (in Supersport).”
Di Mario had one sketchy moment on the Supersport bike early in the session, but it didn’t seem to faze him much.
“I was trying to figure out how much gas I could give it because it’s a little bit different,” Di Mario said. “Either I was too nice on the gas and I was getting gapped, or I was giving it too much and it would slide. I was just trying to figure it out, but that’s probably the hardest thing, figuring out how much you can get on the gas because the braking is pretty similar, and mid-corner is pretty similar, so it’s just that. It was significantly faster. Not really at the end of the straightaway but the initial (pull), it was really aggressive.”
Di Mario caught a glimpse of some the fast guys in the class. “I saw Mathew (Scholtz) and PJ (Jacobsen) out there and Corey (Alexander), but I was trying to figure out myself and they were on their fast laps. I was still trying to figure out my way around.”
