Mar-Train Yamaha rider Stuart Easton smashed the previous lap record set by Alex Lowes back in 2010, by nine tenths of a second to claim pole position in the Motorpoint British Supersport championship. The Hawick lad clocked a time of 1'16.046, to blitz the rest of the competition in cold and windy conditions at Thruxton this morning.
Smiths Triumph Racing's Glen Richards did suffer some tyre problems during the qualifying session, but made up for it with ten minutes remaining to set the second fastest lap time of 1'16.460. Gearlink Kawasaki's Alastair Seeley was leading for most of the session, but with less than five minutes left he could not beat the pace of Easton and Richards.
Richards' team-mate Billy McConnell was consistent throughout, and never dropped below fifth place in the time-sheets. He could not emulate the times current Supersport Champion Richards, but did end the day in fourth, behind Seeley with a time of 1'16.825.
Gearlink Kawasaki rider Ben Wilson was battling with team-mate Seeley throughout the 30-minute session, but in the dying minutes could not get the race pace to over take the wee wizard and qualified in fifth.
Mar-Train Yamaha's second rider Glenn Irwin also had a solid session and even though he could not reach the dizzy height of pole like team-mate Easton he did end the qualifying session in seventh, followed closely by Seton Tuning Yamaha Graeme Gowland, and Oxford TAG Triumph's Scott Smart and Richard Cooper rounding off the top ten with a time of 1'17.847.
