For a brief moment, it looked like an American might not be on pole for the Laguna Seca World Superbike round. The eyes of Texas -- and the rest of the USA -- were on Castrol Honda's Colin Edwards after Brit Neil Hodgson turned in a lap worthy of a Superpole. But Edwards saved national pride and delighted the fans by lapping faster around Laguna Seca than a motorcycle has ever gone before on his red, white, and blue Honda RC51. Edwards set a mark of 1:24.888.

HM Plant Ducati's Neil Hodgson qualified second with a hot lap of 1:25.189. They will be joined on the front row for tomorrow's races by Ducati's Troy Bayliss and Aprilia's Nori Haga.

DFX's Steve Martin got Superpole underway with a 1:26.695, followed by Toseland, who knocked nearly a second off Martin's time. Suzuki's Gregorio Lavilla missed Superpole after a late session crash.

Ducati Infostrada's Ruben Xaus nearly tossed it to the sky on his warm-up lap, but his verve didn't translate to speed and he couldn't break the 1:26 mark. Lucio Pedercini lost the front end of his Ducati in turn five on his lap, reminiscent of the crashes many of the WSC runners made at Laguna when they first came here in the mid 90s.

Eric Bostrom was next, fresh from his AMA Superbike win. Bostrom, who has almost a religious faith in the front end of his Kawasaki, checked in with a beautiful 1:25.668 lap much to the enjoyment of the locals.

Mat Mladin, with sore hands and head from an earlier get-off, couldn't outpace Bostrom but managed a 1:26.134 and will start tenth.

Not many expected much of HMC Ducati's Doug Chandler, an admitted enemy of "Q" tires and a proponent for speed laced with caution, in Superpole. His Superpole time of 1:26.406 was almost a second slower than his best qualifying lap, good for 13th place.

Frankie Chili, the man said to be the most vocal about limiting the track time of the AMA riders, followed Chandler. In the end, he was slower than all the AMA riders in Superpole, save Chandler. Chili will start 12th. He was right.

Haga's lap had the rear wheel looking very uncomfortable, with slides in many corners. Although Bostrom was quicker for the first two sectors, Haga -- and the big horsepower Aprilia -- came up big in the last section and was .4 better than Bostrom in the last section coming through turn eleven, good for fourth.

Suzuki's Aaron Yates followed Haga, and Yates -- riding in his smooth 600 mode rather than with ragged abandon -- earned sixth place.

Many expected much of Nicky Hayden, but his the start/finish line was a slowish 140kph and lost nearly .4 of a second in the first sector. His time of 1:26.268 was good for eleventh in his first Superpole.

Ben Bostrom crashed out on turn ten on his warm-up lap. WSC rules dictate that BBoz will start eighth, although that offers little solace in what he expected to be the weekend in which it all comes together for him in 2002. "I don't know what really happened," Bostrom said after the fall.

Neil Hodgson shimmied into turn one next, with quicker splits that any rider to that point. He moved to the top when he crossed the line to the joy of the many Brits in the press room who would like nothing better than to have a subject of the Queen on pole for the USA event.

"Dunlop brought some new tires for this event, and they are working really well," Hodgson said afterward.

The last hope for the Americans was Colin Edwards, and the Texan did not disappoint. He was .1 quicker than the Brit through the first sector. Edwards set a new track record with an amazing sub-25 lap. His mark? 1:24.888, better than the Superpole record of 1:25.705 set last year by Ben Bostrom.

The last man with a chance to keep Edwards off pole was World Champ Troy Bayliss. Bayliss didn't have it in the first two sectors, and settled for third with a mark of 1:25.301.

Edwards has never won his home WSC round. Will that change tomorrow?