Swan Yamaha's Tommy Hill has set the fastest time in this morning opening British Superbike free practice session at Cadwell Park and was more than half a second faster than two-time champion Shane Byrne with Josh Brookes' Relentless Suzuki in third.
On a drying and cold track, Hill was only 1.5s outside Leon Haslam's four-year old lap record, going round in 1'28.063 while Byrne mustered a 1'28.583 with a few minutes left to go. Brookes took the initiative early on with a 1'29.110 but then came back to third with a 1'28.668 on his last lap.
Ryuichi Kiyonari grabbed fourth place on the sheets with a 1'28.897 while Michael Rutter just pipped Peter Hickman's Tyco Honda for fifth place with his last lap. The wily veteran is eight-tenths off Hill's pace while local man Hickman is another tenth further back.
The second Swan Yamaha of Michael Laverty slipped back to seventh after being in the top three early on with Chris Walker eighth, James Ellison ninth and Evo runner Glen Richards rounding out the top ten. Alex Lowes is 11th and 1.7s off the pace, Graeme Gowland is 112th and second Evo bike.
Jon Kirkham, Martin Jessopp and Gary Mason complete the top 15 with Barry Burrell the third Evo man in 17th. Tommy Bridewell placed 17th on his debut for the Motorpoint Yamaha team while Ian Lowry's weekend could already be over after his Buildbase BMW destroyed itself after only a handful laps.
