Hydrex Honda's Karl Harris has taken first blood in this morning's initial British Superbike free practice session at Oulton Park and looked to have performed a blitzkrieg on the field until Leon Camier reduced a 1.5 deficit.
Harris started the session incredibly fast, opening up a 2.5s lead at the top of the timesheets where he stayed for the rest of the 50-minute outing, putting in fast lap after fast lap.
With half an hour remaining, Harris was still 1.5s faster than the next placed man, team-mate Stuart Easton but Airwaves Yamaha man Leon Camier was getting into his stride and climbing the order.
Camier finally got on terms with Harris in the dying minutes of the session, putting in a 1'37.608 lap which will allay the Kent youngster's fears his Airwaves Yamaha would be down on power this weekend.
Surprisingly, Super Cup contender Gary Mason, on the Quay Garage Honda, was third fastest, just under a second slower than Harris, while Easton finished fourth and rounds out a provisional front row.
Buildbase Kawasaki's Tristan Palmer was an equally-surprising fifth place wwith Simon Andrews, who was black flagged at the start of the session for failing to stop at noise control, in sixth.
HM Plant Honda's Glen Richards was just behind Andrews on a 1'38.837 laptime with Chris Walker the first of the Rob Mac Yamahas in eighth with Ian Lowry and James Ellison rounding out the top ten. Richards' team-mate Josh Brookes ended his first outing at the Cheshire track in 24th.
