Datatag Extreme qualifying:
- Shane Byrne (Rapid Solicitors Kawasaki) 1m:26.131s
- Chris Walker (Lloyds British GBmoto Racing Kawasaki) +0.058s
- James Ellison (Lloyds British GBmoto Racing Kawasaki) +0.254s
- Jakub Smrz (Millsport Ducati) +0.373s
- Tommy Bridewell (Milwaukee Yamaha) +0.550s
- Ryuichi Kiyonari (Buildbase BMW) +0.597s
Shane “Shakey” Byrne saved his best until last in a dramatic Datatag Extreme Qualifying session at Brands Hatch. The triple-champion waited until the closing minutes to claim pole position for the fifth round of the MCE Insurance British Superbike Championship on the Grand Prix circuit.
Byrne continues his bid for a record fourth title win, but only completed a handful of laps in the first two elements of the grid-deciding session. “The bike was not working for me in Q1 and Q2 and I thought it best the team worked on it rather than me staying out on track,” said Byrne. “Your confidence takes a battering when you are losing the front end, but thanks to the team and the changes made it possible.”
Byrne’s third pole came with a lap in 1m 26.131secs, just 0.058secs up on Lloyds British GBmoto Kawasaki’s Chris Walker. His team-mate James Ellison completes the front row of the grid after his spell at the top earlier in the session.
It was a dramatic session for Josh Brookes who crashed twice during the three sessions, with the Australian crashing out first at Westfield in the opening session, with very little damage to the Milwaukee Yamaha. However in his quest to make amends he again crashed out of contention at Sheene Curve where his bike took a battering.
Jakub Smrz heads the second row on the Millsport Ducati ahead of Milwaukee Yamaha’s Tommy Bridewell while Ryuichi Kiyonari, fresh from his triumph in the previous round at Knockhill, was sixth aboard his Buildbase BMW. John Hopkins starts his Tyco Suzuki from the third row with Richard Cooper and Dan Linfoot completing the top ten.
“Unfortunately I didn’t have a better lap time before the crash so I have to start from the third row. The irony is I feel this weekend I had more emphasis on, in my mind, on a good qualifying position and be on the front row to try and then not have to try and make loads of passes. The irony is, that I crashed trying to achieve that and now I am on the third row and have to pass all the people so go fissure. That is the situation we are in for tomorrow and we just have to make the best of it. The boys can fix the bike and it will be fine for tomorrow, going fast you have to expect to crash now and again so I am not surprised but I am annoyed to crash. We just have to get back on it tomorrow and try again.”
Supersport
Alastair Seeley won a frantic last lap scrap with Graeme Gowland to win the dash to the line by 0.171secs in the Motorpoint British Supersport Championship Sprint race as they both closed in on the series leading Billy McConnell who tipped out of third on the fourth lap.
Seeley had grabbed the initiative from the start but there was no shaking off the Smiths Triumph duo of Gowland and McConnell as they hassled him for position while just behind them pole starter Jake Dixon was running fourth ahead of Luke Jones and Glenn Irwin.
But on the fourth lap, a rare error by McConnell saw him go down at Druids with Jones, having just nosed ahead of Dixon, taking over in third place with a grandstand view of the intense duel ahead as Seeley and Gowland slugged it out by the lap, with never more than two tenths of a second between them
Seeley had the edge, but a minor excursion off line on the final lap gave Gowland the chance to snatch the lead but it was short lived before the Martrain Yamaha man was back in front to take his second win of the season.
Seeley said: “It was good to get the win – we’ve had two DNFs that have hurt us but I enjoy this place, having my first BSB win here in the wet and other wins since and this was a typical ding-dong Supersport race. We’ve done a lot of testing and got me more comfortable on the bike and I was also more aggressive off the line. I could hear the Triumph coming and tried to ride defensively to get the win.”
Gowland said: “That was a good race and brings back memories of my race of last year with Alastair and Stuart Easton – naturally I would like to have won but second is good for the championship. It was sad that Billy crashed, but this has made up for my crash, my mistake in the last round at Knockhill, bringing the points back to how it was then, but there is still a long way to go.”
Jones had at one point looked to be closing in on the leading duo on the Acumen Industrial Service Triumph but decided to take solid points as he explained: “in the latter stages I lost a lot of front grip, and I had a good gap over fourth, so I settled for that, but I am delighted to have pole start for the championship race.”
Alex Olsen won the Supersport EVO class ahead of Tim Hastings and Danny Webb.
Motorpoint British Supersport Championship sprint race result:
- Alastair Seeley Martrain Yamaha
- Graeme Gowland Smiths Triumph +0.177s
- Luke Jones Acumen Industrial Services Triumph +1.930s
- Jake Dixon Appleyard/Macadam & Doodson Yamaha +3.377s
- Luke Stapleford Profile Triumph +7.275s
Motorpoint British Supersport Championship standings
- Billy McConnell Smiths Triumph 152pts
- Graeme Gowland Smiths Triumph 131
- Alastair Seeley MarTrain Yamaha 127
- Luke Stapleford Profile Triumph 113
- Glenn Irwin Gearlink Kawasaki 109
Pirelli National Superstock 1000 Championship qualifying
Series leader Danny Buchan left it late to put his Tsingtao WK Kawasaki onto pole as the sun shone on a dry track. The Essex-based rider finally overcome Honda’s Jason O’Halloran’s by only 0.002s. Reigning Champion Hudson Kennaugh completed the front row line up with Lee Jackson, Filip Backlund and Johnny Blackshaw on the second.
Pirelli National Superstock 600 Championship qualifying
Tarran Mackenzie grabbed pole on the Team WD40 Kawasaki by a split second with a late fast lap as the track dried to overcome points leader Andy Reid, despite the FFX Yamaha crashing at Paddock Hill Bend. James Lodge completes the front row on the Moto-Breakers Kawasaki.
Milwaukee Yamaha Report
The Milwaukee Yamaha team are ready to come out fighting for podium finishes at the fifth round of the MCE Insurance British Superbike Championship at Brands Hatch tomorrow after Tommy Bridewell and Josh Brookes qualified in fifth and eighth place respectively.
The opening qualifying session for Brookes started strongly as he initially hit the top of the times; however he crashed out at Westfield after only one flying lap. The Milwaukee Yamaha returned to the garage and the team soon had the Australian back on track for the end of the session. Brookes claimed his place in Q3, although he suffered another high-speed crash at Sheene Curve whilst pushing for the pole position, which left him with the eighth fastest time. However Brookes is ready to battle in the two races on the Grand Prix circuit tomorrow.
On the opposite side of the garage Bridewell continued to build momentum throughout the weekend and after testing the different tyre options in the opening two qualifying sessions, he was ready to challenge in Q3. Bridewell’s fifth place qualifying result equals his best performance of the season.
Brookes said: “Qualifying one started fine and I got a run in and then tried to improve and got on the gas too early and the back end let go and it low-sided and luckily didn’t do too much damage to the bike or to me. In qualifying three everything was back to normal and I forgot about the crash and just wanted to go faster, the first flying lap was ok and then on the second lap I could tell I was improving from my dash. I knew I was going better than all of my previous laps and I kept my head down to push as hard as I could and the next thing I knew the front end let go and I was down again.
“Unfortunately I didn’t have a better lap time before the crash so I have to start from the third row. The irony is I feel this weekend I had more emphasis on, in my mind, on a good qualifying position and be on the front row to try and then not have to try and make loads of passes. The irony is, that I crashed trying to achieve that and now I am on the third row and have to pass all the people so go fissure. That is the situation we are in for tomorrow and we just have to make the best of it. The boys can fix the bike and it will be fine for tomorrow, going fast you have to expect to crash now and again so I am not surprised but I am annoyed to crash. We just have to get back on it tomorrow and try again.”
Bridewell said: “It was a good qualifying session for me. We have made minimal changes this weekend from what we had at Knockhill and the Milwaukee Yamaha has been working really well. We went out in Q1 and tested the SC0 and then in Q2 we tried the SC1 and we were a bit undecided so we didn’t want to pull our brains out. We decided to think about race tactics so in Q3 we decided to use the SC1 and it worked brilliantly. The team have worked well and I feel fast and consistent, so we now just need a good clean start tomorrow and try to get away at the front. We’ve seen it has been close this weekend and nobody has run away with it so I think it will be two fighting races tomorrow.”
