Round eight – 25/26/27 August Cadwell Park Fall-guy Hill is the fastest in Saturday free practice Results Free practice one: 1: Tommy Hill (Swan Yamaha) 1m:28.102s 2: Shane Byrne (Rapid Solicitors Kawasaki) +0.115s 3: Peter Hickman (Buildbase BMW) +0.238s 4: Alex Lowes (WFR Honda) +0.309s 5: Michael Laverty (Samsung Honda) +0.600s 6: Danny Buchan (MSS Bathams Kawasaki) +0.771s Free practice two: 1: Tommy Hill (Swan Yamaha) 1m:28.477s 2: Alastair Seeley (Tyco Suzuki) +0.800s 3: Alex Lowes (WFR Honda) +0.847s 4: Michael Laverty (Samsung Honda) +0.885s 5: Michael Rutter (MSS Bathams Kawasaki) +1.093s 6: Ian Lowry (Padgetts Honda) +1.105s Report Tommy Hill, the leader in the MCE Insurance British Superbike Championship title stakes, set the pace in free practice ahead of the Holiday Monday eighth round at Cadwell Park but it was a close run affair for the Swan Yamaha rider. Hill had been running second for the majority of the morning session behind Shane “Shakey” Byrne who had set the pace on the Rapid Solicitors Kawasaki, but in the closing minute Hill stormed ahead by 0.115secs. However the defending champion went from hero to zero as he crashed out at Mansfield without injury but remained the fastest rider on track. Local riders Peter Hickman (Buildbase BMW) and Alex Lowes (WFR Honda) completed the top four while Aussie Josh Brookes, who goes into these races third in the overall standings, was only tenth fastest on his Tyco Suzuki. Hill took his pace through to the afternoon session with the best of his five flying laps within a third of a second of his previous best before the session was red-flagged as Byrne crashed at the Hairpin and is being assessed for an injury to his right shoulder. A massive thunderstorm then brought a premature end to the Superbike session, with a resumption on Sunday morning. For more information please visit www.britishsuperbike.com More, from a press release issued by Swan Yamaha: Swan Yamaha’s Tommy Hill set the fastest time in the opening two free practice sessions at Cadwell Park at the eighth round of the MCE Insurance British Superbike Championship. Hill had waited until the closing stages of the opening session to move to the top of the timesheets which he followed up with the fastest lap in second free practice before heavy rainfall bought the session to a premature end. Noriyuki Haga continued to learn the challenging circuit; he tipped off in the early stages at the Hairpin to end the day nineteenth fastest. Hill said: “We were happy with our pace today; we made some changes in the second session and we also changed the engine but I had a bit of a nightmare to start with as I forgot to put my ear plugs in again and I can’t explain what that is like but I only managed the one flying lap before I had to come in. That was a good lap and then the session was stopped with Shakey’s (Shane Byrne) crash and then we had a huge hailstorm. We still have some changes we want to try to the chassis in the last free practice session tomorrow morning before qualifying as we lost some time today with the weather but I am fairly happy and I want to send my best wishes to Shakey.” Haga said: “I have been learning the track today and the first session we did some laps and then made some small changes to the rear suspension and I had a good feeling. I had a small crash this afternoon; I caught the engine casing on the kerb and then after that it was very bad weather and we had the red flag. I didn’t do any more laps but this track I am still pushing to learn as it is not what I am used to but we can improve again tomorrow. I need to try for the best results we can this weekend because it is important for the Showdown.” For more information visit www.swanyamaha.co.uk