Samsung Honda’s Alex Lowes again led the way in the second MCE British Superbike free practice session at the Assen circuit. The Derby lad was on fire the moment he left the garage and set the pace from the very start. He continued to improve on his time clocked from the morning and ended the day with a 1’38.049.
There was a slight rain shower thirty minutes into the session, but that quickly passed and soon the rain flag’s were put away at the side of the track. But in a repeat performance of the opening free practice it was Tyco Suzuki’s PJ Jacobsen who was at the sharp end and was never far off the pace of the Honda. But the New Yorker was just a fraction slower – by only three tenths of a second. Even after a last lap dash, just as the chequered flag appeared he could not topple Lowes from the top of the timesheets.
Milwaukee Yamaha’s James Ellison stormed to a provisional front row start with just over ten minutes remaining of the session and that he where he remained till the 45 minutes of track time came to an end with his best lap of 1’38.431.
Samsung Honda’s Ryuichi Kiyonari massively improved from the morning session, and clawed his way from just outside the top ten fastest times to fourth quickest and pushed Rapid Solicitors Kawasaki’s Shane Byrne down to fifth in the process. The Japanese rider was only one tenth of a second behind Ellison, with triple champ Byrne only one one-hundredths of a second behind Kiyo.
British Superbike returnee Noriyuki Haga finished the second free practice in sixth, one tenth of a second behind his new team-mate Byrne. The Samurai of Slide is riding in place of the injured Keith Farmer, and the former World Superbike racer ended the day with a 1’38.670.
Quattro Plant Kawasaki’s Chris Walker, and Padgett’s Jakub Smrz clocked times that placed them seventh and eighth in the timesheets, with Tyco Suzuki’s Josh Brookes and Milwaukee Yamaha’s newest rider, Tommy Bridewell rounding off the top ten. The Devizes lad crashed in the first practice outing, and injured his little finger, but was cleared to take part in today’s festivities.
Tsingtao WKBikes Performance rider Howie Mainwaring Smart was missing from the line up this afternoon. The racer has been ruled out of further action this weekend after breaking his collarbone in this morning's opening free practice. But there are rumours linking David Johnson to the vacant seat for the remainder of the weekend.
It was not a good session for the Buildbase BMW camp, as both rider’s failed to make it to the end of the allocated 45 minutes of track time. Firstly it was Showdown rider, James Westmoreland who fell at Geert Timmer, but he was declared OK at the side of the circuit. Then seconds later Jon Kirkham suffered a technical problem at Ossebroeken, putting a premature end to his second free practice session.