SMT Honda's Karl Harris has blitzed the opening British Superbike free practice session at Oulton Park this morning and only the Airwaves Yamaha of Leon Camier could get anywhere near the Yorkshireman.
Harris's 1'36.580 was three-tenths quicker than Camier could muster with Hydrex Honda's Tommy Hill a distant third fastest, some 1.1 seconds off the pace with the MSS Colchester Kawasaki of Julien Da Costa grabbing fourth on the last lap.
Da Costa's lap of 1'38.022 demoted the second Hydrex Honda of Stuart Easton to the outside of a theoretical second row while another last-lap flyer saw Quay Garage Honda's Gary Mason move up to sixth. The second Airwaves Yamaha, belonging to James Ellison, is seventh while Relentless Suzuki's Ian Lowry is eighth, 1.5s in arrears.
Harris opened his account with a monstrously fast lap of 1'37.321 with Lowry second fastest some two seconds slower and Simon Andrews' MSS Colchester Kawasaki in third. Lowry kept hold of his place on the timesheets as Camier started a run of laps which put him third.
With ten minutes of the session gone, Harris lapped in 1'37.054 while Camier's time for second was a distant 1'38.594. Lowry deposed Camier for second place but the pair swapped again one lap later as Easton started his climb up the order, putting in a 1'38.850 for fourth.
Camier dipped under the 1'38s barrier with 34 minutes to go as Mason popped into fifth. Andrews took that position away from him on the half hour but he was usurped by the Bathams Ducati of Michael Rutter soon after.
As Easton took third place on the leaderboard, Camier got to within a tenth of Harris's time and then, with 19 minutes left, Camier hit the top of the table with a 1'36.973. Team-mate Ellison, meanwhile, found some pace and took fourth with a 1'38.284.
That only lasted a couple of minutes, however, as Lowry got to the outside of the front row and Tommy Hill then went third with a 1'37.757 as Mason consolidated his fifth place.
With six minutes left, Harris put in his quickest lap which no-one could match, while Hill went quicker in time and Da Costa took fourth with his final flying lap, which pushed Easton into fifth.
