Brookes takes first pole of season |
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| Saturday, 04 July 2009 16:35 | |||
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HM Plant Honda's Josh Brookes take his first British Superbike pole with a time of 48.759s, the only rider to break into the 48s and holding off usual pole position man Airwaves Yamaha Leon Camier who had to settle for second ahead of Stuart Easton of Hydrex Honda in third and Michael Rutter of Worx Crescent Suzuki rounding off the front row. The session wasn’t long under way before it was red flagged due to a collision between Ian Lowry of Relentless Suzuki and HM Plant’s Glen Richards who is currently receiving medical attention for a suspected broken leg. As the session got back underway Lowry was able to return to track on his second bike to finish 9th. This session saw a variety of riders at the top including Karl Harris of Hydrex Honda who had to eventually settle for starting off the front row in fifth after crashing out in the last stages. Ellison after struggling in the first stage bounced back to make it through each round and finish sixth, on the second row, but it was Brookes who became the untouchable man of the day. After a rush rebuild this was a huge thank you back to his team for their efforts today. Superpole two Leon Camier 0'49.145 Chris Walker 0’49.258 Stuart Easton 0'49.367 This time the initial session was led by Rutter for a few minutes until it was Camier as usual who took the top spot and stayed there for the rest of the stage. Rutter had to settle for fourth after Walker stormed to the second place and Easton rounded off the top three. It was a better run for Ellison and no red flags this time but Kirkham crashed out of 16th place before dropping to 19th if he can take part, unfortunately looking to have hurt his left hand. All cup riders were eliminated Mason just missing out by finishing in 11th. ELIMINATED Gary Mason Simon Andrews, Michael Laverty David Johnson Peter Hickman Tristian Palmer Julien Da Costa Tommy Bridewell Jon Kirkham Jason O’Halloran Superpole one Leon Camier 0'49.082 Stuart Easton 0’49.097 Glen Richards 0'49.339 Camier took pole from the start of the session followed closely be Easton who held their positions for the main part of the season. Early on in the session Harris was in third with Rutter running in a strong fourth following two crashes yesterday. It was long until Richard jumped to third pushing Harris down a place. Lowry and injured Andrews moved ahead of Rutter as they improved lap by lap with Rutter eventually finishing 9th. Brookes bike was repaired and after running down in 15th he moved up the order in eight, putting him out of the danger zone. Andrews reigned over Lowry by snatching that position, after that there was not any change at the top for the whole session. The shock of the session was Ellison running down in 21st, not looking to improve. With 13 minutes to go the session was red flagged due to Fagan crashing out causing severe damage to his Honda putting him last on the grid for Sunday’s race in addition to a suspected dislocated shoulder. This break looked to give others opportunity to recover and fix errors such as Kirkham who had a technical problem in the first half of the session allowing him to improve to 17th, Walker jumped up the order to just outside the top ten in 11th after his running in 18th and Ellison progressed to leap up to 11th, but fell down to 13th as the session ended. With three minutes to go the session was red flagged again due to wildcard rider Haire crashing at Leslie’s and the bike needing to be removed. It was an impressive ride for Hickman who was the highest cup rider in tenth position, while the usual dominating cup rider Mason was 14th with final cup rider Johnson just scrapping through in 20th. Article Source: Bike Sport News
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