Shakey claims first Superpole win of 2016 MCE British Superbike season at Snetterton
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Shane ‘Shakey’ Byrne claimed pole position in the first Datatag Superpole Qualifying of the 2016 MCE Insurance British Superbike Championship season at Snetterton, pushing Leon Haslam back to second place with his one flying lap.
First up was Broc Parkes and he set the initial benchmark lap for the ePayMe Yamaha team, but Peter Hickman was up second and he then went to the top of the times to put the JG Speedfit Kawasaki team ahead.
Christian Iddon then went for his fast lap, aiming to beat the lap Hickman had set ahead of him; the Tyco BMW rider couldn’t quite do it though and he was placed just adrift of Australian Parkes.
Buildbase BMW’s Richard Cooper was next for the one lap shootout and despite his best attack he will start ninth on the grid for tomorrow’s first race, just adrift of Iddon who joins him on row three.
Danny Buchan was next for his first Superpole experience and he powered the Lloyds British Moto Rapido Ducati into second place behind Hickman after his flying lap, but with four riders still to go he played the waiting game. The local contender starts from row two in sixth place after the end of the Superpole session.
Championship leader Haslam was on the ascendancy though and the JG Speedfit Kawasaki completed his flying lap to move to the top of the times with Jason O’Halloran and Dan Linfoot unable to better his time. Linfoot slotted into second position ahead of his team-mate with just Shakey to go.
The final lap of the session was down to Shakey to better Haslam’s time and he stormed ahead by 0.563s.
It was disappointment for Michael Laverty and Luke Mossey who both crashed out, the Tyco BMW rider missing out in Q2 and the Quattro Plant Teccare Kawasaki rider will start from the tenth row after his mistake in Q1.
Billy McConnell made progress up to 13th on the timesheets.
In a wet third practice session it was an O’Halloran and Josh Hook 1-2 in the damp conditions, but during qualifying Hook had to settle for 27th after technical problems with the WD-40 Kawasaki cut his qualifying session short.
Shane Byrne (Be Wiser Ducati) – Pole position
“I am really happy with that lap time. I was a little nervous before I went out for my lap as I had got to see Leon’s [Haslam] time so I knew what I had to do to beat it. On the lap itself I knew I had a little bit in hand and I knew I was up on my best previous time. I kept nicking time here and there, but had a few little errors too but when I saw the final time I was pretty chuffed!
“The team have done a great job and we are building to be as good as we can for the Showdown. So far, so good and we need to keep it up now. I have had a lot of good races here so hopefully we can have more of the same tomorrow.”
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MCE Insurance British Superbike Championship, Snetterton, Datatag Qualifying, Superpole
- Shane Byrne (Be Wiser Ducati) 1m:47.795s
- Leon Haslam (JG Speedfit Kawasaki) +0.563s
- Dan Linfoot (Honda Racing) +0.632s
- Jason O’Halloran (Honda Racing) +0.800s
- Peter Hickman (JG Speedfit Kawasaki) +0.902s
- Danny Buchan (Lloyds British Moto Rapido Ducati) +1.030s
- Broc Parkes (ePayMe Yamaha) +1.034s
- Christian Iddon (Tyco BMW) +1.223s
- Richard Cooper (Buildbase BMW) +1.249s
- James Ellison 1m49.124
- Glenn Irwin 1m49.272
- Lee Jackson 1m49.366
- Billy McConnell 1m49.480
- Jake Dixon 1m49.499
- Tommy Bridewell 1m49.537
- Michael Laverty 1m49.862
- Jack Kennedy 1m50.327
- Filip Backlund 1m50.616
- Jakub Smrz 1m50.925
- Stuart Easton 1m50.962
- Martin Jessopp 1m51.050
- James Rispoli 1m51.092
- Alastair Seeley 1m51.228
- Ryuichi Kiyonari 1m51.670
- Howie Mainwaring-Smart 1m52.095
- Aaron Zanotti 1m52.104
- Josh Hook 1m52.800
- Luke Mossey 1m52.816
- Jenny Tinmouth 1m52.888
- Shaun Winfield 1m53.474
British Supersport Race One
Reigning Champion Luke Stapleford cruised to victory in an action packed Dickies British Supersport Championship race, as current leader James Westmoreland crashed out on the opening lap.
It was pole man Mackenzie who took the holeshot into the opening corner, but a dramatic opening lap saw the safety car deployed after a number of crashes. With the car coming in at the end of lap three, Mackenzie’s lead was slowly chipped away by the returning Stapleford, who put his Triumph into the lead on lap five.
Continuing to set fastest lap after fastest lap, Stapleford cruised away to take the win by 3.832s ahead of Mackenzie. A last lap collision between third place Currie and fifth place Jones saw David Allingham take his debut rostrum of the season.
Benjamin Currie had qualified seventh but unfortunately was one of the crashers today. Levi Day finished the opening race in 19th place.
