Relentless Suzuki's Ian Lowry led a hunt to catch the Airwaves Yamaha of Leon Camier in the second British Superbike free practice session at Croft this afternoon and was within spitting distance until the final minutes.

Lowry was within half a second of the Kent youngster until the last two minutes of the session when Camier just upped his pace to a 1'20.571 which left Lowry three-quarters of a second in arrears, with Hydrex Honda's Stuart Easton a fraction slower in third.

In a session that saw almost all of the leading riders dip into the 1'21s bracket, Lowry set his quickest lap to go to the top of the leaderboard after only 10 minutes, and he stayed there until Camier took over on the half hour and didn't look back.

Superbike Cup leader Gary Mason put in an astonishing salvo of laps early on, resulting in a 1'21.629 with Camier two tenths slower in second and HM Plant Honda's Josh Brookes in third.

Hydrex Honda's Tommy Hill staked his claim to the top spot after just five minutes, just nipping under Mason's time while Brookes' team-mate Ryuichi Kiyonari was fifth quickest. With ten minutes gone, Lowry popped into third and MSS Kawasaki's Simon Andrews started his climb up the leaderboard, taking sixth from Atsushi Watanabe.

After Camier snatched the lead from Lowry with a 1'21.224 lap, he followed it with a 1'21.104 as Stuart Easton jumped from seventh to fourth with a 1'21.733. Camier's set of laps saw him duck under the 1'21 barrier with a 1'20.906.

Easton's next run saw him go into third with a 1'21.489 and then a 1'21.370 as Camier just went faster and faster. Andrews came up from sixth to fourth with a 1'21.540, which was matched exactly by Camier's team-mate James Ellison just seconds later.

Two minutes from the flag, Camier set his quickest lap which set the benchmark for tomorrow's third practice session. Hill was sixth fastest on a 1'21.575 with Mason less than a tenth slower while Mason finished in seventh.

A theoretical second row is rounded out by Motorpoint Yamaha's Chris Walker  while Brookes and Buildbase Kawasaki's John Laverty complete the top ten. It hasn't been a great day for Karl Harris, who has rejoined the Rob Mac team. Harris finished the session in 16th place, nearly two seconds off the pace.
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