Jonathan Rea claimed pole start with the fastest ever two wheeled lap at Croft

Shakey Byrne will start tomorrow from second row. © Suzuki Racing. Jonathan Rea claimed pole start for the tenth round of the Bennetts British Superbike Championship with the fastest ever two wheeled lap of the North Yorkshire circuit. The HM Plant Honda rider had been the dominant force throughout practice and qualifying, but he saved his best, on a blustery afternoon, for the final minutes of the session as he set a blistering time of 119"433 an average 96.39mph around the 2.127 mile circuit, and a remarkable one and a half seconds inside the record.

“Hopefully it will come here – this has got to give me my best shot at winning a race and I am well up for it,” said Rea. “The lap felt really smooth, though I was bit surprised by the time as I made a little mistake out there, but the tyre I had in was so grippy that it was like taking a walk in the park. Now though I have to concentrate on podium finishes I these races as I want to get ahead of Shane Byrne in the standings.”

Rea, needed his pace to keep him ahead of the title chasing trio who packed the front row of the grid as they prepare for a high speed ‘shoot-out.' Leon Haslam, whose speed in qualifying eased him seven points clear of Lavilla in the Audi Quattro Performance Award rankings, is aiming to peg back the five points deficit he has on Kiyonari. He shrugged aside a tumble during morning practice, to close within 0.134secs of Rea, but Kiyonari, who had also escaped with a bruising as he tipped off was only a split second down on him.

Gregorio Lavilla had complained of a gear problem during the morning session, but that had been sorted for the grid decider, and he lapped in 1' 19"893, fourth fastest.

Shane Byrne heads up the second row of the grid, with a 1'19"929 lap, ahead of Karl Harris, another faller during the morning session, who recovered to set sixth best time, half a second up on Virgin Mobile Yamaha's Tommy Hill, with Michael Rutter aboard the Stobart Motorsport Honda, eighth in a time of 1' 20"500.
(Nick Harris Media)

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