Championship leader Bradley Perie took pole position for this afternoon’s Quattro British Supersport race at Brands Hatch with the Appleyard Macadam Yamaha rider just edging out the GP2 Cup machine of Charlie Nesbitt (RS Racing Kalex) and Harry Truelove (Truelove Brothers Racing Yamaha)
Kyle Smith made the early running on the Dynavolt Triumph before his time was bettered by the GP2 machines of Nesbitt, Jake Archer and Mason Law but Ben Currie them upstaged all of them with a lap of 1’33.403s on the Gearlink Kawasaki.
The pace was quickening all the time though and Currie soon found himself back in fifth as Lee Johnston (Ashcourt Racing Yamaha) moved to the top of the leaderboard with the first sub 1’32 lap. Jack Kennedy (HEL Performance/Bournemouth Kawasaki) was only 0.181s adrift but both were then overhauled by Perie, the Cumbrian going quickest by 0.334s.
Next time around and it was Kennedy’s turn to go into P1, his advantage over Johnston 0.124s with Perie pushed back to third albeit only 0.022s adrift of the General.
Nesbitt was now in fourth but still the leading GP2 runner with Jack Scott up to fifth and only a tenth back on the JJ Racing Harris. Currie sat in sixth at the mid-way point of the session.
A minute later, Kennedy became the first rider into the 1’29s with a lap of 1’29.989s and that gave him a near four tenths of a second advantage over Johnston with Smith now up to third ahead of Perie and Currie, the latter moving up to fifth to ensure the leading five machines were all from the Supersport class.
With ten minutes to go, Kennedy was still quickest but Nesbitt had moved to second ahead of Johnston with Truelove now up to fourth which, in turn, pushed Smith and Perie down to fifth and sixth respectively.
Kennedy was then pushed back not one spot but three as Smith went quickest at 1’29’545 with Perie and Currie also moving ahead of the Dubliner. However, with six minutes remaining, he hauled himself back up to second and on his next lap he put himself back in P1.
It didn’t last long though as Perie bettered his time next time around albeit by just 0.064s. Nesbitt wasn’t far behind either with a lap of 1’29.376s putting him third and only 0.007s adrift of Kennedy.
The RS Racing Kalex man then went quickest with a lap of 1’29.142s and with Perie and Truelove also going quicker, they moved up to second and third. Kennedy was pushed back to fourth but the leading four riders were split by just 0.077s!
It didn’t stay that way for long though as a lap of 1’29.091s by Perie in the dying seconds meant he ultimately claimed the pole position from Nesbitt, Truelove, Kennedy and Smith.
Currie, Johnston, Korie McGreevy (Mar-Train Racing Yamaha), Eunan McGlinchey (Gearlink Kawasaki) and the second Dynavolt Triumph of Brandon Paasch completed the top ten.