Shane Byrne picked up where he left off today by securing pole position in the opening round of the British Superbikes at Brands Hatch
He has topped the timesheets throughout free practice across the weekend and just underlined his dominance this afternoon by topping them in two of the three sessions of qualifying.
Alongside him on the front row he has Alex Lowes on his Samsung Honda, with James Ellison in third and Jon Kirkham in fourth place.
Japanese rider Ryuichi Kiyonari who is thought to be Shakey’s main title rival this season could only managed seventh place. He will most certainly be a rider to watch when the action gets going at Kent’s premier race circuit on Sunday.
After the first session of qualifying the field was cut with Jessop, Robbin Harms, Howie Mainwaring, Quigley, Danny Buchan, Aaron Zanotti, Jennie Tinmouth and Lee Costello.
Then after the second session of qualifying only the top ten went through to the shootout for pole position, with Chris Walker, Karl Harris, Tommy Bridewell, Jakub Smrz, Matteo Baoicco, Josh Waters, Michael Rutter and Peter Hickman all missing out.
Giving his reaction to being pole sitter for the opening round of the BSB’s in 2013, Shakey said: “It feels good to be on pole. It is important to get a front row start here at Brands Hatch and that is what we have done. We have been chasing a few things with the Rapid Solicitors Kawasaki and finding the little bits we need to work on to be consistent.
“We are in good shape for the race and it is tomorrow’s races that count so we need to push for them. I think it is going to be really close; there is a lot of emphasis on me and Kiyo but there are plenty of guys who will be more than a pain in the backside this season, starting tomorrow. We are concentrating on what we need to do and hopefully it will be a good result in the races tomorrow.”
The Top Ten for the MCE Insurance British Superbike Championship, Brands Hatch, Datatag Extreme Qualifying will be:
- Shane Byrne (Rapid Solicitors Kawasaki) 45.655s
- Alex Lowes (Samsung Honda) +0.142s
- James Ellison (Milwaukee Yamaha) +0.315s
- Jon Kirkham (Buildbase BMW) +0.410s
- Keith Farmer (Rapid Solicitors Kawasaki) +0.437s
- Josh Brookes (Tyco Suzuki) +0.482s
- Ryuichi Kiyonari (Samsung Honda) +0.506s
- PJ Jacobsen (Tyco Suzuki) +0.678s
- James Westmoreland (Buildbase BMW) +1.049s
- Dan Linfoot (Lloyds British GBmoto Honda) +1.060s
The racing gets underway at Brands Hatch tomorrow at 11:15am with the British Superbikes first race at 12:45 with 30 laps of the Indy circuit. They are then back on track at 15:45 for another 30 laps in the second and final race of the opening weekend for the Superbikes.