RAF Reserves Kawasaki's Jake Dixon held off the advances from Anvil Hire TAG Racing's Josh Brookes in the second MCE British Superbike free practice session at Thruxton.
The young gun went one tenth under Brookes' lap record at the track, with a 1'14.716. With 23 minutes remaining drops of rain started to fall in sectors one to three. At this point during the session it was Brookes who headed the sheets with a 1'14.918, and he was the first rider this weekend to lap a sub 1'15. Then most of the riders retreated to the pits.
The rain shower only lasted a handful of minutes and the rain flags were swiftly withdrawn. With the track back in action Smiths Racing's Peter Hickman also lapped inside the 1'14's and put down a 1'14.958, and was 0.04s shy off the best time set by Brookes.
Be Wiser Ducati's Shane Byrne managed to improve by a tenth of a second from the first free practice outing and ended the afternoon further up the timing-screens in fourth, with the fastest rider from FP1, Luke Mossey completing the top five.
The rider who made one of the biggest improvements this session was Smiths Racing's Lee Jackson. The quiet Northerner excelled in the second free practice and went
0.003s quicker than JG Speedfit Kawasaki's Leon Haslam to place his S1000RR sixth on the screens. Jackson went over one second quicker in the final session today, with a 1'15.553.
Haslam meanwhile also gained one second to significantly improve his pace. Iddon, McConnell and Hopkins were all inside the top ten times.
Road Racing stars, Michael Rutter and Michael Dunlop were out during this session on the Bathams BMW and Bennetts Suzuki bikes respectively. They are getting some track time ahead of the Ulster GP. Rutter went P14, with Dunlop P27.
There was only one faller during the session, and that was Jakub Smrz. The Czech Republic racer fell unhurt at Church, but still managed a lap that put him 12th fastest overall, just behind Irwin and ahead of Honda Racing's Jason O'Halloran, Dan Linfoot, and former World Superbike champ, Sylvain Guintoli.
It was not the best of sessions for the McAMS Yamaha team. Ellison lapped a 1'16.475 and Laverty was nearly one second off that time, and his best rotation was inside the 1'17's.
