Josh Brookes claims first pole position of 2015 by 0.014s at Oulton Park
Josh Brookes claimed his first pole position of the 2015 MCE Insurance British Superbike Championship season in style at Oulton Park today (Sunday), lapping under his own circuit record to out-gun Tommy Bridewell to the top spot by just 0.014 seconds.
Josh Brookes (Milwaukee Yamaha) – P1: 1m 34.946s – “I am really pleased to get my first pole position of the season. It is always something you want to achieve, and it isn’t always the most crucial part of the weekend, but it is a nice feather in the cap. I am a bit surprised to get pole as during the earlier sessions both Kiyo and Shakey have also been there and I expected them to pull something special out in qualifying.
“We have had to change out set up a bit where the track conditions have been changing we had to alter the bike a bit, so we have been putting the pieces together. We made some changes before qualifying and it really felt like the bike I was looking for.
“It felt like quite a clean lap in Q3, so I was happy considering the conditions were changing. These guys are all so close – it was point nothing in it and it is obviously going to be really close in the races too as all of us on the front row can do the lap times and Shakey and Kiyo won’t just disappear, so it is going to be as I predicted – a good few of us in for the battle.”
The pole position marked the first in MCE BSB for the new Milwaukee Yamaha YZF-R1 and Brookes held off the late challenges from both Bridewell, who scored Tyco BMW their first front row start of the season, and Stuart Easton on the PBM Kawasaki.
Easton had saved his best lap until the final minute of Q3, which pushed triple champion Ryuichi Kiyonari back onto the third row for the Buildbase BMW team.
Shane ‘Shakey’ Byrne set the fifth best time of the session on the second PBM Kawasaki as he bids to increase his six point advantage over JG Speedfit Kawasaki’s James Ellison who has won three of the four races so far and qualified in sixth place.
Jason O’Halloran had a huge moment on his fast lap, almost crashing the Honda Racing Fireblade, but managed to save it and hold seventh on the timesheets to head the third row ahead of Tyco BMW’s Michael Laverty. Danny Buchan riding the Be Wiser Kawasaki and Billy McConnell completes top ten qualifiers on the Smiths BMW.
Broc Parkes will start from the sixth row of the grid as he continues he learn the challenging Cheshire circuit. The Australian is determined to fight his way up the field in the two Bank Holiday races.
Broc Parkes P16 1m36.315s – “To be honest I wanted better today and I wanted to be in the top ten. In hindsight it looks a lot worse because we haven’t had a lot of dry time, so we went straight into qualifying in the dry and I didn’t really have the pace.
“This is one of the most difficult tracks on the calendar to learn according to lots of people, and even though I was 1.2s off it put me back a fair bit. Tomorrow I need to have two good races and I think I will get stronger and fight in the first laps to get as many points as possible.”
Josh Waters progressed from Q3 inside the top-10 and has made progress with the set-up on his GSX-R1000, lapping the Oulton Park circuit faster than he has done in previous seasons. Sadly, he couldn’t put the lap-time together in Q2 and will start the opening race from row six on the grid.
Josh Waters P18 – “It’s been tough and it’s so close out there. Eighteenth isn’t good but I’m taking the positives from the performance in the first qualifying session. We moved in the right direction yesterday but the weather has hampered us a bit as we only had one fully-dry practice session. We made a positive step; we just need to make a bigger one. We’ll spend some time in the garage this evening and keep working away.”
BSB 2015 – Oulton Park Qualifying
1 Joshua Brookes Yamaha AUS 1’34.946
2 Thomas Bridewell Yamaha GBR 1’34.960
3 Stuart Easton Kawasaki GBR 1’35.006
4 Ryuichi Kiyonari Honda JPN 1’35.155
5 Shane Byrne Ducati GBR 1’35.183
6 James Ellison Yamaha GBR 1’35.395
7 Jason O’Halloran Honda AUS 1’35.581
8 Michael Laverty PBM GBR 1’35.606
9 Danny Buchan Kawasaki GBR 1’35.749
10 Billy Mcconnell Kawasaki AUS 1’36.204
11 Chris Walker Honda GBR 1’35.858
12 Howie Mainwaring Smart Kawasaki GBR 1’35.984
13 Jakub Smrz Ducati CZE 1’36.087
14 Richard Cooper BMW GBR 1’36.125
15 Jack Kennedy Kawasaki IRL 1’36.310
16 Broc Parkes Yamaha AUS 1’36.315
18 Josh Waters Suzuki AUS 1’36.526
British Supersport
Luke Stapleford led for all but the opening lap of the Motorpoint British Supersport Championship Sprint race to take the victory ahead of Glen Irwin and extend his lead in the title stakes to 21 points after Jake Dixon had crashed out of contention.
Dixon had barged through to take the early lead on the Smiths Triumph but Stapleford on the Profile Triumph soon took over at the front and then from the third lap was tested all of the way by the determined Irwin.
They duelled intensely but still pulled away from a five rider scrap for third place which ended in tears on the seventh lap when James Rispoli high-sided at Shell in front of Dixon and Ben Wilson who also crashed.
Stapleford and Irwin were clear of that and Kyle Ryde on the PacedayZ Trackdays Yamaha gained most as he made third place his own ahead of Andy Reid on the Team Traction Control Yamaha and the leader of the Supersport EVO class Joe Collier on the Haribo Starmix Triumph.
Sam Hornsey’s bike blew on the tenth lap, with the race red-flagged and the result declared giving Stapleford the victory, 0.372sec clear of Irwin with Ryde third.
Stapleford said: “After Brands Hatch I was quite confident though I didn’t expect Glen to be there and it was getting hard work towards the end. We are on a roll at the moment – it has been a few years coming, but we are getting there – the bike was perfect.”
Motorpoint British Supersport Championship Sprint race result
1: Luke Stapleford (Profile Triumph)
2: Glen Irwin (Gearlink Kawasaki) +0.372s
3: Kyle Ryde (PacedayZ Trackdays Yamaha) +6.932s
4: Andy Reid (Team Traction Control Yamaha) +7.128s
5: Joe Collier (Haribo Starmix Triumph) +8.942s
Motorpoint British Supersport Championship standings
1: Luke Stapleford (Profile Triumph) 111pts
2: Kyle Ryde (PacedayZ Trackdays Yamaha) 90
3: Glen Irwin (Gearlink Kawasaki) 82
4: Jake Dixon (Smiths Triumph) 74
5: Ben Wilson (Gearlink Kawasaki 40
Pirelli National Superstock 600 Championship qualifying
Tarran Mackenzie put his Stauff Connect Academy Kawasaki onto pole with a determined lap in 1m 40.961s to head off the threat of series leading Mason Law riding the NMT No Limits Kawasaki with Benjamin Currie completing the front row on his PacedayZ Trackdays Yamaha. Local favourite Joe Francis, Andrew Irwin and Bradley Ray are on the second row.
Pirelli National Superstock 1000 Championship qualifying
Alastair Seeley powered in a time of 1m 37.818secs to put his Tyco BMW onto pole start, running almost a quarter of a second up on Hudson Kennaugh on the Trik Moto BMW with David Johnson completing the front row for Smiths BMW. Josh Elliott, Luke Quigley and Adam Jenkinson start from the second row.
Ducati TriOptions Cup qualifying
Mark Cheetham starts the Sunday afternoon race from pole position, having out-qualified Phil Atkinson by 0.270secs with Leon Morris completing the front row while series leader Dennis Hobbs who crashed on his out lap starts from the back of the grid.
HEL Performance British Motostar Championship qualifying
Series leader Taz Taylor took pole start on his RS KTM with a time of 1m 45.873s to beat off the challenges of Ed Rendell on the Banks Honda and Redline KTM’s Scott Deroue as Moto3 riders dominated the leading positions. Josh Owens 13th overall was the best of the 125GP qualifiers from Mark Clayton and Louis Valleley.
Hyundai Heavy Industries British Sidecar Championship qualifying
Tim Reeves/Gregory Cluze took pole start by half a second from the series leaders Ricky Stevens/Ryan Charlwood. Andy Peach/Charlie Richardson and defending champions Sean Hegarty/James Neave start from the second row.
Ducati TriOptions Cup Sunday race
Leon Morris led throughout but behind him there was a frantic scrap for second place. Rob Guiver twice broke the lap record as he battled to get ahead of Marty Nutt who had the last say, snatching second on the final lap. Guiver took third from Robbie Brown while Dennis Hobbs the series leader carved through from the back of the grid to take fifth.
