Beautiful sunny conditions greeted the competitors at Oliver's Mount, Scarborough on Saturday morning and it was Guy Martin who topped the practice leaderboard for the Superbike class. The Tyco Suzuki rider, looking to reclaim the International Gold Cup he last won in 2009, posted a time of 1'46.891s and will line up in pole for this afternoon's Superbike race but it was tight with Michael Pearson on the Team Hotties ZX-10R Kawasaki just 0.119s adrift.

The road racing sensation of 2012, Dean Harrison, took third a further three tenths behind with Jamie Hamilton completing the front row on the sole KMR Kawasaki. Michael Dunlop ended the session in seventh, one place ahead of Bruce Anstey, the Kiwi having only his second outing around the woodland venue and his first since 2003.

In the Supersport 600cc class, it was Pearson who led the way with his pole time of 1m49.879s placing him three tenths of a second ahead of Daniel Frear (RMKD Yamaha R6). Martin took third from Harrison with the second row comprising Ivan Lintin, Ian Lougher, William Dunlop and Newcomers Manx GP winner James Cowton. Anstey, primarily using the meeting to qualify for his 2013 Moutain Course licence, ended up 10th.

Pearson later had a spill exiting the Memorial in the Supertwins session, but was uninjured, and ended up fourth behind Lintin, Hamilton and Harrison. In the concurrently run 250cc class, Justin Waring was quickest from Paul Owen, Chris Palmer and Phil Harvey whilst the 125cc leaderboard saw the top four comprise of Irish pairing Seamus Elliott and Sam Wilson and Lougher and Waring.

Meanwhile, Michael Dunlop's sidecar career got off to a promising start when he qualified in seventh place behind many of the Scarborough regulars including the pace setting Dave Molyneux/Patrick Farrance, Ian and Carl Bell, Conrad Harrison/Lee Patterson and Carl Fenwick/Mark Sayers.