Smiths Triumph rider Glen Richards took pole position in this morning’s British Supersport qualifying session. He stole it away from Jack Kennedy in the last minutes of the session with a lap time of 1’22.190, 0.192 seconds quicker than the young Irishman.
Light rain before the session meant the majority of the riders stayed in pit lane, hoping that the rain would pass over. Thre riders took the gamble with dry tyres; they were Kennedy Richard Cooper and Dan Cooper. Kennedy went quickest, Richard Cooper second and Dan Cooper third causing Ben Wilson to quickly follow out of pit lane. He separated the Coopers to go third quickest.
With the grid seeming to be set and the rain starting to fall at a heavier rate, Seton Yamaha’s Sam Warren and Australian Richards went out on track with wet tyres in the back of their Supersport. On his first flying lap Richards moved up to second quickest and then followed with his pole position lap time. Championship leader Warren jumped from the back of the third row, twelfth, up to the middle of the second row, sixth, with his lap time of 1’23.116.
Joining Richards on the front row is Irishman Kennedy, Richard Cooper and the Gearlink Kawasaki of Ben Wilson. Dan Cooper heads the second row ahead of Warren, Billy McConnell – recovering from an engine blow up and crash at 120mph yesterday afternoon and the best of the cup competitors, Luke Jones. Ninth is comeback rider Jesse Traylor followed by Dean Hipwell, Pauli Pekkanen and Jimmy Hill – who also put in a wet Pirelli late in the session.
