And they’re off… Friday morning practice was the first real session that race teams and the public witnessed the 2008 British Superbike riders on track together. Leon Haslam and Karl Harris set the pace from the green lights. They were the only two riders running in the 1m 27s for most of the session, whilst Airwaves Ducati Shakey Bryne crept up the order. With 20 minutes to go Shakey stormed to the top with a 1m 27.5s and ended the session in the a 1m 26.9s , Harris lost out to Haslam by .2s but sat in a positive 3rd.

Cal Crutchlow led the next batch of riders in 4th with a time in the early 1m 28s, Leon Camier, team mate to Shakey sat in 7th with a 1m 28.7s, a strong ride considering he is continuing to suffer from his injury earlier in the year and still has to move gradually. Newcomer Astushi Watanabe finished 19th, after continuously improvingt. Watanabe has only rode on the Indy Brands Circuit before, not the full that is demanded from him this weekend therefore he has a steeper learner curve than most and in a limited amount of time, but no doubt will be improving throughout the weekend.

Unfortunately David Johnson, Team Maxxis Honda, was unable to set a time after having to pull out half way through his first lap due to mechanical problems. John Laverty made his mark after the doubt of his participation within the Daily Star Cup he was the fastest of the championship with a time in the 1m 30.4s, followed by the returning Tom Tunstall almost a second behind who was closely shadowed by Rookie Steve Mercer in 3rd running at a similar pace.

Shane Byrne topped the time sheets again in the afternoon session, knocking a further 0.3s off his time. The top for riders were the same as the morning, but with Cal Crutchlow this time taking 3rd in front of Karl Harris in 4th.

Harris when asked if he was pleased with today said ‘Oh yeah, definitely, the bike is working well.’ With regards to his expectations and is he where he expected the team he continued ‘Yeah, I need to find another couple of tenths in the back part of the circuit’. this the part of the circuit that is opened up in addition to the Brands Indy Circuit, which starts from Surtees and goes through the woods back down to Clearways.

Leon Haslam was 2nd in both sessions and set a fastest time of 1m 26.9s showing that he has no problem adapting back to the Honda. He explained ‘I am very pleased with today, especially as Brands Hatch is one of the hardest tracks to get setup for.’ He continued ‘Because the circuit is so up and down, in the downs the bike bottoms out so you need to make the suspension really hard, but that can affect other things and other parts of the track.’ When asked if there is anything particular that he needs to concentrate on today either on the bike or part of the circuit he said ‘It’s learning about the Pirelli’s tyres and need to get further feeling in the front end, but today was very successful to be running 2nd.’

Simon Andrews racing on the Lloyds British Jentin Yamaha has got their season off to a more positive start by running 8th with a 1.29.0s to move up a place with a 1m 27.9s in the afternoon. This is a positive start for the team that had to finish mid-season last year due to funding. Dave Johnson return on a mission to set his fastest time of 1m 30.2s to overcome the disappointing mechanical problem earlier in the day.

John Laverty again topped the cup championship, followed by Luke Quigley who knocked 1.5s off his morning time and again Steve Mercer was 3rd after holding the top spot for the beginning of the session.
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