Round seven 18/19 July Mallory Park ViSK British Superbike Championship in association with Pirelli Leon Camier, the leader in the chase for the ViSK British Superbike Championship in association with Pirelli, overcame the machine problems of free practice to power in his fifth pole start ahead of the seventh round of the country’s premier series at Mallory Park. The Airwaves Yamaha rider was hard pressed to head off the determined challenges of Tommy Hill, the former World Superbike rider, who was making his seasonal debut into the series aboard the Worx Cresent Suzuki. Hill had been the pace-setter through free practice and was making the most of his opportunity with the Suzuki team, upping the tempo, as he duelled with Camier across the Swan Combi 50 Roll for Pole session, only to miss out on starting his one hundredth BSB race by 0.179secs. Camier, who had completed only a handful of laps in free practice, due to machine problems, rewarded the hard working efforts of his team when it mattered most, going top of the qualifying leaderboard with a lap of the 1.41mile Leicestershire circuit in 56.016secs. “We’ve had a bad time, and not done that many laps till the grid decider which was the first full session we’ve done on the race bike,” explained Camier. “We are strong and up there, and after two years of horrendous results here, hopefully things are looking better now that I have pole.” Chris Walker ran third fastest with a lap of 56.221secs aboard the Motorpoint Henderson Yamaha, to be just ahead of the surprise package of the weekend, Mirror.co.uk Cup rider Richard Cooper on the Co-ordit Yamaha. Cooper, enjoying his one-off appearance into the series, had embarrassed his factory riding rivals throughout, and his lap of 56.345secs secured for him a front row start, and he reflected: “That’s not bad for someone riding a three year old bike!” John Laverty headed up the second row of the grid on the Buildbase Kawasaki, running a tenth up on the similar machine, but running in MSS Colchester colours, of Simon Andrews. James Ellison, who trailing his team-mate Camier by 78 points in the title stakes, ran seventh fastest, marginally up on Hydrex Honda rider Karl Harris. Grame Gowland, on the second Motorpoint Henderson bike, ran with a best time of 56.642secs, matched by Stuart Easton, the Hydrex Honda rider who is third in the overall rankings. Michael Rutter, making his debut with the SMT Honda equipe in place of Jason O’Halloran and MSS Colchester Kawasaki rider Julien da Costa completed the third row. Adrift of them came Buildbase Kawasaki’s Tristan Palmer, David Johnson on the Team Maxxis Yamaha, Atsushi Watanabe Relentless Suzuki, and the leader of the Mirror.co.uk Cup, Gary Mason aboard the Quay Garage Honda. Josh Brookes, the pole-starter in the previous round had a difficult grid deciding session, starting his HM Plant Honda from the fifth row, in company with Ian Lowry and Cup riders Peter Hickman and Tommy Bridewell. Tom Tunstall, Kenny Gilbertson, Steve Brogan deputising for the injured Glen Richards and Martin Jessopp lined up behind them with local rider Aaron Zanotti and Michael Howarth, riding the STP-JHS MV Agusta for the first time, at the back of the pack. Top ten qualifying times: L Camier, Airwaves Yamaha, 56.016secs T Hill, Worx Crescent Suzuki, 56.195s C Walker, Motorpoint Henderson Yamaha, 56.221s R Cooper, Co-ordit Yamaha, 56.345s J Laverty, Buildbase Kawasaki, 56.379s S Andrews, MSS Colchester Kawasaki, 56.489s J Ellison, Airwaves Yamaha, 56.547s K Harris, Hydrex Honda, 56.605s G Gowland, Motorpoint Henderson Yamaha, 56.642s S Easton, Hydrex Honda, 56.642s More, from a press release issued by Airwaves Yamaha: HIGH FIVE FOR AIRWAVES YAMAHA Leon Camier today claimed his 5th pole position of the 2009 British Superbike season at Leicestershire’s Mallory Park. James Ellison qualified 7th to start Round 7 from the 2nd row of the grid. Completing only 8 laps aboard his Number One bike prior to Qualifying, Leon topped the timesheets in the first session and ended Qualifying 2 just 0.095 off fastest. James joined his teammate in the final 10 minute Roll for Pole session going 10th quickest. Both Airwaves Yamaha riders went on to reduce their previous best times by around two tenths of a second. In final Qualifying, James’ best time, 56.547 came on lap 3. He produced a Personal Best Sector 1 on his final lap, but was unable to improve on his overall time. Leon’s pole time, 56.016 came on lap 6 of 8. After Qualifying Leon said, “The last few years at Mallory Park have been horrendous for me. I’ve had issue after issue and a run of bad results. I thought this weekend was going the same way. We had problems with my Number One bike up until Qualifying which reduced our track time. To then qualify on pole just shows what a fantastic package the Airwaves Yamaha YZF-R1 is. Tommy Hill has been awesome all weekend. I’ll need to get away well and really get my head down in the races tomorrow. It’s going to be close out there.” On his progress this weekend James commented, “I’ve been struggling all year on the Airwaves Yamaha with direction change. As Mallory Park has so many chicanes, it became the perfect place to try and solve it. I’m really pleased as we’ve seen in the data that I’ve improved the speed in which I’m now changing direction. The only problem is that it’s affected the traction on the rear. We’ve got a couple of adjustments to try in warm-up to see if we can now get the best of both worlds.” More, from a press release issued by Team Suzuki News Service: Tommy Hill has made a fantastic debut with the Worx Crescent Suzuki team today at the British Superbike Championship seventh round at Mallory Park and, after dominating practice, he was only narrowly beaten for pole position for tomorrow’s two BSB races. Tommy Hill: “This is fantastic! I’m over the moon. We started in P1 in the first practice and stayed there. It would have been nice to have started on pole but front row is fine and I feel comfortable with my race setup this weekend. I’ve really gelled with the Worx Crescent Suzuki team. It’s all working very well, and I’m really impressed with the way they pushed to improve even where we are already ahead. This is a circuit where anything can happen so I’m looking for a good start then get into a rhythm and see what comes.” Jack Valentine – Team Manager: “Tommy’s been doing a great job. He’s working really well with the team and being incredibly professional in all ways. He has put together an excellent performance and we couldn’t ask for much more. His practice starts have been good and our race simulations are also looking very good. The GSX-R1000 is working well so we are very optimistic for a very good outcome for tomorrow.” Swan Combi 50 – Roll for Pole: 1. Leon Camier (Airwaves Yamaha) 56.106s 2. Tommy Hill (Worx Crescent Suzuki) +0.179s 3. Chris Walker (Motorpoint/Henderson Yamaha) +0.205s 4. Richard Cooper (Co-Ordit Yamaha) +0.329s 5. John Laverty (Buildbase Kawasaki) +0.363s 6. Simon Andrews (MSS Colchester Kawasaki) +0.473s 7. James Ellison (Airwaves Yamaha) +0.531s 8. Karl Harris (Hydrex Honda) +0.589s 9. Graeme Gowland (Motorpoint/Henderson Yamaha) +0.626s 10. Stuart Easton (Hydrex Honda) +0.626s