American Ben Spies has set a new record for consecutive pole positions in the FIM Superbike World Championship's US round.

The 24-year-old smashed the previous mark of six straight poles, set by fellow Texan Doug Polen 18 years ago, after a lap of one minute 48.344 on his Yamaha in Superpole 3at Miller Motorsports Park in Utah. .

Spies' time was 0.564 seconds better than Spain's Carlos Checa, who was second on his Ten Kate Honda with his teammate, Ryuichi Kiyonari, a further 0.335 seconds behind in third.

Italian Michel Fabrizio completed the front row of the grid on his Xerox Ducati, followed by the Sterilgarda Ducati pair of Jakub Skurz of the Czech Republic and Shane Byrne of Great Britain.

Kawasaki riders Broc Parkes of Australia and American Jamie Hacking, who set the top time in Superpole 1, filled out the second row in seventh and eighth places respectively.

Championship leader Noriyuki Haga of Japan will start in ninth place on his Ducati Xerox after missing the cut for Superpole 3 while Max Biaggi, who held the provisional pole on Friday, will start 16th on the grid after crashing during Superpole 2.