Josh Brookes claimed his first British Superbike Championship pole position of the season on Sunday afternoon with the FHO Racing BMW rider coming out on top in a damp qualifying session at Oulton Park.

His final lap enabled him to got the better of Leon Haslam (ROKiT BMW Motorrad) with Storm Stacey taking an impressive third and the final spot on the front row on the Starline Racing Kawasaki.

With grey skies overhead and a damp track underneath, it was Tim Neave who was the first to show his hand in the 12-minute session, the McAMS Yamaha rider, who’d progressed from Q1, lapping at 1’46’587 to lead the way from fellow Q1 graduate Josh Owens (Crendon Honda by Hawk Racing).

They were soon relegated down the order by Danny Kent, the Lovell Kent Racing Honda edging Neave out by the slender margin of 0.061s. Jack Kennedy (Mar-Train Racing Yamaha), Glenn Irwin (BeerMonster Ducati) and Christian Iddon (Oxford Products Racing Ducati) completed the early top six.

Kent upped his pace next time around to a 1’46.008 with Luke Mossey, another rider coming out of the Q1 session slotting into second on the Tactix by Lloyd & Jones BMW with Irwin moving up the order to third. With three minutes left on the clock, Kennedy was now fourth ahead of Neave and Owens.

Haslam was the next to go to the top of the leaderboard with a lap of 1’45.466, the first rider in the 1’45’s but he wasn’t there long as Stacey went a full second quicker with a 1’44.227. Andrew Irwin, quickest in Q1, was also on the move as he jumped up to second for Honda Racing.

With one minute to go, Brookes jumped up to first with a 1’44.193 with Glenn and Andrew Irwin hot on his heels but Stacey wasn’t to be out done and retaliated immediately with a 1’43.808. Jason O’Halloran then went third on the McAMS Yamaha.

Haslam quickly responded to go quickest once more but it was Brookes who had the final word with a final lap of 1’42.543 giving him a 0.660s advantage over his fellow BMW rider whilst Stacey held onto third for his best ever BSB qualifying position.

Glenn Irwin claimed fourth ahead of O’Halloran and Mossey with Andrew Irwin taking seventh from Peter Hickman, the second FHO Racing rider putting in a late lap to finally move into the top ten. Behind him, Kennedy and Tim Neave completed the top ten as Iddon and Kent dropped back to 11^th and 12^threspectively. Tommy Bridewell was a lowly 15^th on the second BeerMonster Ducati whilst Owens crashed late on at Lodge although he escaped injury

BSB Oulton Park - Qualifying Results