HM Plant Honda’s Cal Crutchlow has claimed his, and team’s, first pole position of the British Superbike season, sticking in a wet time of 1’36.605 – more than half a second faster than Shane Byrne and third-placed man Tom Sykes.
In a session full of incidents, which included crashes from Leon Haslam, James Buckingham and Leon Morris (and some suspicious smoke from Michael Rutter’s NW200 Ducati), Crutchlow came to the fore and is now a serious contender for the title.
Sykes’s team-mate Astushi Watanabe had to settle for 14th after stopping due to a technical problem. Karl Harris, who is riding with a broken foot from the shocking wipe-out at the previous round and an over sized specialised boot to cope with the injury, sits behind Michael Rutter in fifth. Harris is desperate to prove there is no keeping a hard man down and so wants his first point in the championship after two DNFs at Thruxton.
Steve Plater finished 22nd with a time of 1’40.6s on his return from World Endurance duty (the crowd appreciating his sprint back to the pits after his AIM Yamaha ground to a halt at Lodge). John Laverty topped the cup riders taking 15th ahead of Luke Quigley in 18th and Chris Burns in 21st. John suffered a crash in morning practice where he was fortunately ok, unlike the bike which suffered severe damage.
Hawk Kawasaki’s Scott Smart pulled his finger out towards the session end to claim 12th on the grid after joining the session halfway through.
Results are here
