Editorial Note: American James Rispoli qualified sixth in Motorpoint British Supersport with a lap time of 1:39.204 on his Team Traction Control Yamaha YZF-R6. Rispoli then DNF Sunday’s eight-lap Race One at Oulton Park.
Brookes claims first pole position of 2015 by 0.014s at Oulton Park
Results
Datatag Qualifying:
1: Josh Brookes (Milwaukee Yamaha) 1m 34.946s
2: Tommy Bridewell (Tyco BMW) +0.014s
3: Stuart Easton (PBM Kawasaki) +0.060s
4: Ryuichi Kiyonari (Buildbase BMW) +0.209s
5: Shane Byrne (PBM Kawasaki) +0.237s
6: James Ellison (JG Speedfit Kawasaki) +0.449s
Report
Josh Brookes claimed his first pole position of the 2015 MCE Insurance British Superbike Championship season in style at Oulton Park today (Sunday), lapping under his own circuit record to out-gun Tommy Bridewell to the top spot by just 0.014 seconds.
The pole position marked the first in MCE BSB for the new Milwaukee Yamaha YZF-R1 and Brookes held off the late challenges from both Bridewell, who scored Tyco BMW their first front row start of the season, and Stuart Easton on the PBM Kawasaki.
Easton had saved his best lap until the final minute of Q3, which pushed triple champion Ryuichi Kiyonari back onto the third row for the Buildbase BMW team.
Shane ‘Shakey’ Byrne set the fifth best time of the session on the second PBM Kawasaki as he bids to increase his six point advantage over JG Speedfit Kawasaki’s James Ellison who has won three of the four races so far and qualified in sixth place.
Jason O’Halloran had a huge moment on his fast lap, almost crashing the Honda Racing Fireblade, but managed to save it and hold seventh on the timesheets to head the third row ahead of Tyco BMW’s Michael Laverty. Danny Buchan riding the Be Wiser Kawasaki and Billy McConnell completes top ten qualifiers on the Smiths BMW.
Josh Brookes (Milwaukee Yamaha)
P1: 1m 34.946s
“I am really pleased to get my first pole position of the season. It is always something you want to achieve and it is a nice feather in the cap.
“It felt like quite a clean lap in Q3, so I was happy considering the conditions were changing. These guys are all so close – it was point nothing in it and it is obviously going to be really close in the races too as all of us on the front row can do the lap times and Shakey and Kiyo won’t just disappear, so it is going to be as I predicted – a good few of us in for the battle.”
More, from a press release issued by Milwaukee Yamaha:
Brookes claims first pole position of the season at Oulton Park
Josh Brookes claimed his first pole position of the 2015 MCE Insurance British Superbike Championship season at Oulton Park, lapping under his own existing record to celebrate the Milwaukee Yamaha team’s first pole on the new YZF-R1.
Brookes had been building momentum in the dry conditions to move 0.014s ahead of his closest rival, Tommy Bridewell and is now feeling confident ahead of tomorrow’s two races.
Parkes will start from the sixth row of the grid as he continues he learn the challenging Cheshire circuit. The Australian is determined to fight his way up the field in the two Bank Holiday races.
Josh Brookes
P1: 1m:34.946s
“I am really pleased to get my first pole position of the season. It is always something you want to achieve, and it isn’t always the most crucial part of the weekend, but it is a nice feather in the cap. I am a bit surprised to get pole as during the earlier sessions both Kiyo and Shakey have also been there and I expected them to pull something special out in qualifying.
“We have had to change out set up a bit where the track conditions have been changing we had to alter the bike a bit, so we have been putting the pieces together. We made some changes before qualifying and it really felt like the bike I was looking for.
“It felt like quite a clean lap in Q3, so I was happy considering the conditions were changing. These guys are all so close – it was point nothing in it and it is obviously going to be really close in the races too as all of us on the front row can do the lap times and Shakey and Kiyo won’t just disappear, so it is going to be as I predicted – a good few of us in for the battle.”
Broc Parkes
P16th: 1m36.315s
“To be honest I wanted better today and I wanted to be in the top ten. In hindsight it looks a lot worse because we haven’t had a lot of dry time, so we went straight into qualifying in the dry and I didn’t really have the pace.
“This is one of the most difficult tracks on the calendar to learn according to lots of people, and even though I was 1.2s off it put me back a fair bit. Tomorrow I need to have two good races and I think I will get stronger and fight in the first laps to get as many points as possible.”
More, from a press release issued by RAF Reserves BMW Team:
Hickman ruled out of Oulton BSB round
Peter Hickman and the RAF Reserves BMW team have been ruled out of Monday’s British Superbike Championship third round at Oulton Park after the Louth-based rider sustained rib injuries in a crash during Saturday afternoon’s free practice session.
After an extremely positive test at the Cheshire venue just over a week ago, hopes were high coming into the third round and that’s exactly how it started on Saturday morning when the 27-year old placed a strong eighth in the opening 50-minute free practice session. Conditions were dry then but later that afternoon, the rain fell and Hicky was one of a number of riders to fall foul to the weather.
Peter went down heavily on the approach to Druids, sustaining two broken ribs and the Championship’s medical team have declared him unfit to ride for the rest of the weekend meaning he’ll miss both of Monday’s 18-lap races.
He now faces a period of convalescence and, amongst a number of things, will visit the hyperbaric chamber in a bid to quicken up the healing process.
Peter Hickman: “Everything had been going really well for me and I did nothing different to what I had done the previous lap so it was a very strange crash. I lost the front in a very unusual place and it went without warning and at a very high speed. I had no chance to slow down and had a very hard impact with the barrier. It was a tough crash and a hard crash but whilst I’m obviously feeling stiff and sore, I’m feeling a lot better than I thought. I’m just gutted for the team and all the sponsors that we’re not going to get the opportunity to show what we can do in the two races.”
Lee Hardy: “It’s such a shame that Peter had his accident but, as a team, we have to put his health and well-being first and we fully back the medical team’s decision to sign him off for the rest of the weekend. The last thing we want is for him to damage himself more or put other riders at risk so we’ll support him as much as we can over the next few weeks to get him back to 100% fitness.”
“The test day here couldn’t have gone any better and Peter lapped quicker than what he’d ever done before so hopes were extremely high for two strong results. Unfortunately, it wasn’t meant to be so we’d like to apologise to all the sponsors and everyone connected with the team but that’s how things go sometimes in racing. Peter’s health will always come first and we’ll re-evaluate the situation next week and keep everyone updated accordingly.”
More, from a press release issued by Team Suzuki Press Office:
BENNETTS SUZUKI OPTIMISTIC AFTER TOUGH BSB QUALIFYING
A tough qualifying session for the new Bennetts Suzuki team at Oulton Park today saw Josh Waters 18th and Christian Iddon 24th on the grid for round three of the MCE British Superbike Championship, but the team remains optimistic ahead of tomorrow’s two races.
Waters progressed from Q3 inside the top-10 and has made progress with the set-up on his GSX-R1000, lapping the Oulton Park circuit faster than he has done in previous seasons. Sadly, he couldn’t put the lap-time together in Q2 and will start the opening race from row six on the grid.
After breaking his leg at the last round at Brands Hatch, Iddon has been struggling to get comfortable with his GSX-R1000 on the undulating and challenging track. However, regular physiotherapy sessions over the weekend have helped him improve in every session and he is confident of improving again come race-day.
Josh Waters:
“It’s been tough and it’s so close out there. Eighteenth isn’t good but I’m taking the positives from the performance in the first qualifying session. We moved in the right direction yesterday but the weather has hampered us a bit as we only had one fully-dry practice session. We made a positive step; we just need to make a bigger one. We’ll spend some time in the garage this evening and keep working away.”
Christian Iddon:
“It was a pretty awful qualifying session for us today and I’m feeling a bit frustrated because the bike is better than I am at the moment and we’re a bit behind on development after missing the test, but we’ve been making progress. The pain in my leg hasn’t been the problem but the level of movement has; the changes of direction around here have made it really difficult as it’s hard to move around on the bike. But we’ve been improving every time we go out, which is good and the leg is loosening-up and hopefully that will continue tomorrow.”
Jack Valentine – Team Manager:
“It’s been a tough day but we know the Bennetts Suzuki GSX-R1000 is better than we’ve shown today. Josh has been working hard and the bike is a lot better for him now and he’s lapped faster than he has in the past around Oulton Park. In Q1 he posted a very respectable lap time. Sadly it wasn’t to be in Q2. The level of competition is so high and we’re just missing a little something. But we are seeing Josh performing better than he has done this season with a lot more aggression, so we’ll keep chipping away tomorrow.
“We’ve been working to find a way to get Christian more comfortable on the bike. He has been improving every session and I think we’ll see more from him in the races. He hasn’t been able to push as hard as he’d like so far and it’s damage limitation a bit, but we’re optimistic for a haul of points tomorrow to keep us in the hunt for the Showdown.”