The American had been a lowly 17th fastest before fitting the super-soft rubber to claim a front row start for the season finale and needs some last gasp progress.

"When I put the qualifiers on, the bike was really good and fun to ride - that was by far the most fun I've had this weekend and I dropped my lap time by two and a half seconds," he confirmed. "But it's honestly been a bit of a nightmare this weekend up to now. For whatever reason I cannot get the race tyres to work for me here.

"I've had a lot of luck with the 16-inch rear tyre at the last few races but at Valencia it's been really tough. Still, I've got some good guys around me and an excellent team so we'll definitely be trying something huge to improve things for tomorrow. Being on the front row is a big advantage here, though I know these guys are going to make it tough. Race day is always a different story and anything can happen so we'll just try to stick our nose in there, put a bid in and try to finish off the year really well.

"I'm excited about the race – I wish I was quicker on race tyres but we'll see what happens when the light goes out. Whatever happens, I'd like to dedicate this performance to Merlyn Plumlee, my mechanic from AMA Superbike who died from cancer last week. He will be sadly missed and I'm definitely thinking about him and his family," added Nicky.