Lowes Friday pacesetter at Phillip Island

He may be a world superbike rookie and on his first visit to Phillip Island, but that hasn’t stopped Briton Alex Lowes setting the fastest time in practice ahead of the opening round of the 2014 Superbike World Championship this Sunday.

Lowes put his Suzuki at the top of the timesheets in today’s second 45-minute practice session – first practice was practically a non-affair due to inclement weather – and then stayed there despite the usually flurry of fast laps at the end of proceedings.

It was a sensational ‘official’ world superbike debut for Lowes, but no huge surprise after he crafted together a pre-season that was full of speed and vigour.

Lowes’ best lap was 1min31.100sec, only a fraction in front of Aprilia’s Marco Melandri (1:31.137), and then  followed by Ducati’s Davide Guigliano (1:31.205) and Kawasaki’s world champion Tom Sykes (1:31.395) – four manufacturers sharing the spoils.

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Australian pair Glenn Allerton (BMW, 1:33.118) and Matt Walters (Kawasaki, 1:35.810) — both 11th hour replacements for injured internationals – were 15th and 22nd respectively on their EVO-spec machines.

Glenn Allerton used the session to continue his busy program of familiarisation with the BMW Motorrad Italia Superbike. After completing only four laps in the wet morning session, to be third quickest, this afternoon the Sydneysider went through a number of rear shock changes as he adapts the machine and himself to the task at hand. After completing 18 laps in the afternoon session Allerton ended FP2 15th quickest, the fastest BMW in the Superbike field, and the fourth quickest EVO spec’ machine with a 1m33.118.

There were two massive highside crashes in the session, with Sykes’ teammate Loris Baz coming unstuck at turn 12, and minutes later Chaz Davies was catapulted over his factory Ducati at turn nine. Both riders were unhurt.

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Jonathan Rea (Honda, 1:31.436) was fifth fastest from Eugene Laverty (Suzuki, 1:31.448).

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The third practice session will be held at 9:45am tomorrow, with the fastest 20 times across the three practice sessions determining the riders who will battle for final grid positions in Superpole at 3:00pm.

Superbikes are back on track at 0945 Saturday morning for FP3. The fourth timed practice session is scheduled for 1230 before Superpole gets underway at 1500.

World Superbike Free Practice 2

Turkey’s Kenan Sofuoglu (Kawasaki) has resumed front-running service in the world supersport class ahead of the opening race in the championship at Phillip Island this Sunday.

After setting the fastest time in the final pre-season test at Phillip Island earlier this week, Sofuoglu was again the pacesetter as he set a best lap of 1min33.618sec, well ahead of second-placed British rider Kev Coghlan (Yamaha, 1:34.263).

While the session was productive for Sofuoglu, despite his bike expiring at turn one near the end of the 45-minute session, Australia’s big hope Bryan Staring (Honda) crashed at turn six and ended up 13th in the timesheets with a best lap of 1:35.109.

Staring; “I was trying to improve the lap time with the new tyre when I lost the rear. The bike is ok, there isn’t much damage and I’m ok so we will come back tomorrow and keep trying. The test earlier in the week went ok and we have consistency on our side we just need to find a little bit more.”

The crash was a real setback for the ex-MotoGP rider from Perth, who was already playing catch-up on his competitors after a condensed pre-season on the CBR600RR – basically the two-day test at Phillip Island on Monday and Tuesday.

Another big-name to crash was Dutchman Michael van der Mark (Honda), who is expected to push Sofuoglu all the way in 2014.

Van der Mark (1:34.294) was fourth in practice two, behind Raffaele de Rosa (Honda, 1:34.277) and ahead of Jules Cluzel (MV Agusta, 1:34.337) and Patrick Jacobsen (Kawasaki, 1:34.366).

Rivamoto Honda new signing Bryan Staring ended the session 13th quickest, 1.5 seconds behind pacesetter Sofuoglu, and three places ahead of fellow Australian Billy McConnell.

Wildcard Racing entrant Ryan Taylor finished the session in 23rd place with a 1m37.303.

The World Supersport riders have one final free practice session at 1045 tomorrow before the all- important 45 minute session to decide the starting grid, which is scheduled to take place at 1555 local time.

World Supersport Free Practice 2