Rockstar Suzuki's Mat Mladin has obliterated the field at Road Atlanta, taking the AMA American Superbike pole position by a massive 1.6 seconds ahead of Yamaha's Josh Hayes and Suzuki's Geoff May.

The Australian veteran has now qualified on pole for the opening three races of the season and looks in ominous form without having Ben Spies to keep him in check.

"It was a good lap for us," said Mladin, who posted a time of 1:25.281. "I think there's quite a bit more out there, but in conditions like today, it's quite cool and the left side of the tires never came around. There was too much rubber to get heated up in that amount of time, so the left side was pretty average and the right side was clean and we got enough temperature in it to do a decent job. It was good."

Hayes, who did a couple of rounds of World Supersport with the Parkalgar HOnda team last year after the death of Craig Jones, reckons there is more to come from his YZF-R1.

"I definitely think there's more in there," said Hayes. "We're working hard. Superpole hasn't been my forte, so I just tried to put in a clean lap with no mistakes. I'm quite surprised it got me P2, especially with this big of a time gap. I thought a lot of these guys would be a little bit closer to him (Mladin), but we'll see. We'll see how tomorrow goes."