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LTD Racing's Puerta and Pascarella Top Five in SuperSport Practice at Mazda Raceway

MONTEREY, Calif. (July 3, 2009) - Friday was a very competitive day for LTD Racing at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca with Tomas Puerta and Joey Pascarella both finishing inside the top five in the opening AMA Pro SuperSport presented by Shoei practice session of the weekend. Puerta was third, while Pascarella earned fifth. Teammate Huntley Nash saw his run at the top of the charts foiled by a broken throttle cable that ended his session early. He was ninth.

Tomas Puerta's time of 1:32.978 was just three tenths behind the leader's best. Puerta, who rode the Laguna Seca circuit several times last season in Rookies Cup competition, said the speed came easy to him. "I love the track and the bike is better than the last race," said the Colombian. "The bike is faster here. I was riding well but not pushing too hard. I'll save that for qualifying and the race. It came pretty easy to me. I know the track well and I felt good so we are positive for the rest of the weekend."

After an arm injury put him out of the Road America event, Joey Pascarella was back in action on Friday. Joey was fast (1:33.619, fast enough for fifth place) despite a little soreness and even saw his possible best lap blocked. "I felt a lot better toward the end than I did the beginning. I started to get my groove back after being off the bike for a while with the injury," said the Vacaville, California resident. "Riding with some of the fast guys, it was good to ride close and get into 'racer mode.' I'm looking forward to the race, for sure."

Huntley Nash was fast out of the gate, but had a mechanical problem that ended his session early. "I didn't get to do the last 30 or 40 minutes of the session," said Huntley. "While I was on the track, everything was fine. We had just made some big changes to the bike before we had the problem, so on the five corners or so before, it felt like a big improvement. I'm looking forward to tomorrow's practice and seeing where we stand." Huntley's best time was 1:35.341.

Saturday will be busy for the LTD Racing team, with a practice session, qualifying, and then the 18-lap race at 5:30 PM local time.