StoneBaker Racing riders Dan Linfoot and Gino Rea will start  
tomorrow's eighth-round race in the 2008 European Superstock 600  
Championship from fourth and fifth place on the grid respectively  
following a nail-biting second Qualifying session at Donington Park  
today.

Going into the half-hour timed period both riders had very different  
objectives. Rea wanted to hold onto or improve on the second place he  
secured on Friday. Having crashed out of yesterday's Qualifying period  
on his first flying lap, Linfoot's goal was simply to get on the grid.

Although the rain that has plagued this race meeting finally abated  
just before the start of the session, the track was still wet from an  
earlier downpour. For that reason Rea was held in the pits until the  
field began to improve on their Friday times. Linfoot, on the other  
hand, was sent out immediately and soon worked his way into the top  
ten, heading the timesheets for a few brief moments at one stage.

By the halfway point, a dry line had begun to appear around the track  
and the lap times started to tumble. Rea was dispatched into action  
and ran with the front six straight away. His final lap of one minute  
50.478 seconds looked set to secure the Epsom rider fourth place on  
the grid with less than a minute of the session left. But teammate  
Linfoot had his own ideas: a final scorching time of one minute 49.290  
seconds in the dying moments snatched fourth and pushed Rea back to  
fifth.

The team was overjoyed with the performance of both riders after  
having to contend with such a difficult set of circumstances.  
Tomorrow's ten-lap race looks set to be full of drama and incident.

Dan Linfoot (4th: 1?49.290)
"I've a mixture of feelings at the moment. I'm annoyed with myself for  
the crash yesterday but now I?m on the front row and I've a fighting  
chance of a good race tomorrow. Perhaps if I'd gone faster sooner I  
could have improved upon my position but I was conscious of what  
happened yesterday and didn't want to do something similar. I kind of  
hit a plateau at the halfway point as I couldn't find a gap in the  
traffic. I pulled back a bit, got steadily faster and banged in a  
quick one at the end."

Gino Rea (5th: 1?50.478)
"I'm disappointed with that session to be honest. I've lost second  
place but I'm right behind the front man on the grid. Perhaps we left  
it slightly too late to go out – the track was drying and there wasn't  
much time left to get a good lap in. There was quite a bit of traffic,  
which made it difficult to get a clear lap in. We?ll see what happens  
with the weather tomorrow. If it's dry it will be lottery as none of  
the overseas riders will have a good set-up."