Round 5 Saturday/Sunday 20/21 June Snetterton ViSK British Supersport Championship in association with Pirelli Leon Camier took his fourth consecutive pole start ahead of the fifth round of the ViSK British Superbike Championship in association with Pirelli at Snetterton. The Airwaves Yamaha rider, who leads the title chase, put in the fastest lap of the weekend in the second element of the grid deciding Swan Combi 50 Roll for Pole, just before rain began to fall. Conditions deteriorated at the Norfolk circuit and in consultation with the Team Liaison Group, the decision was taken to cancel the third part of the grid decider, with the starting positions decided on the basis of times in the second session. That left Camier clear at the top of the leaderboard with a time of 1m 04.930secs, an average speed of 108.22mph. “It is not the ideal way to get pole, but, at the end of the day that doesn’t really matter,” said Camier, adding: “the mixed conditions of the track would have been dangerous and you could have fallen at any second if we had gone out. “I like to think that I can repeat my victory of last year, but these will be hard races, as the qualifying times are so close and with slip-streaming so important here, it will be hard to make the break. “I am planning a strategy on how to run these races and hope we can be out front in the races,” added Camier who with six wins from the eight races so far has opened up a 38 points advantage over his team-mate James Ellison who starts alongside him at the front of the grid. Ellison had put in a best lap of 1m 05.407secs to be running just 0.048secs up on HM Plant Honda rider Josh Brookes, who having earlier led the first part of the grid decider, was having his best qualifying performance of the season so far to be third, and on a front row completed by Flying Scot Stuart Easton on the Hydrex Honda. World Endurance Champion Julien da Costa headed up the second row, running a split second up on his MSS Colchester Kawasaki team-mate Simon Andrews with Ian Lowry on the Relentless Suzuki ahead of the Motorpoint Henderson in the hands of Chris Walker. John Laverty, Buildbase Kawasaki; James O’Halloran on the SMT Honda; Karl Harris, riding Hydrex Honda and Graeme Gowland on the Motorpoint Henderson Yamaha were on the third row while Gary Mason, the unbeaten leader of the Mirror.co.uk Cup ran 14th best, to start his Quay Garage Honda from the fourth row. Mason’s rivals Martin Jessopp, on the Riders Racing Honda; Peter Hickman on the Ultimate Racing Yamaha; and Hardinge Doodson Honda’s Tom Tunstall were on a fifth row completed by Worx Crescent Suzuki’s Michael Rutter who was slowed by a machine problem. Top ten qualifying positions: Leon Camier (Airwaves Yamaha) 1m:04.930s James Ellison (Airwaves Yamaha) +0.477s Josh Brookes (HM Plant Honda) +0.525s Stuart Easton (Hydrex Honda) +0.555s Julien Da Costa (MSS Colchester Kawasaki) +0.576s Simon Andrews (MSS Colchester Kawasaki) +0.586s Ian Lowry (Relentless Suzuki by TAS) +0.634s Chris Walker (Motorpoint/Henderson Yamaha) +0.669s John Laverty (Buildbase Kawasaki) +0.710s Jason O’Halloran (SMT Honda) +0.759s More, from a press release issued by Airwaves Yamaha: AIRWAVES YAMAHA ONE-TWO AT SNETTERTON Leon Camier claimed his fourth consecutive pole position at Snetterton today. James Ellison will start tomorrow’s two British Superbike races on the front row alongside his teammate in 2nd. Both riders comfortably made it through the first qualifying session with Leon 2nd and James 4th. 5 minutes into second qualifying Leon posted the only sub-1 minute 5 second lap of the weekend to go fastest. Moments later James secured 2nd with his best time of 1:05.407. Towards the end of second qualifying, rain began to fall around the 1.95 mile circuit. After a brief delay, the decision was made to cancel final qualifying and use the times from the first two sessions to determine the grid for tomorrow’s races. After being announced as pole-man for tomorrows races Leon said, “It would have been too risky to continue with qualifying. I think the right decision was made. It’s great to get another pole position for Airwaves Yamaha. The races will be tough as it’ll be near impossible to make a break. The long straights produce some great slip streaming. I’ve got some ideas about a strategy that I think could work but we’ll have to wait and see. If we get some dry weather, I think we’ll have two really interesting races.” James was slightly frustrated not to have one more shot at qualifying saying, “Another one-two is great for Airwaves Yamaha but I really wanted to get pole today. I thought Leon might be able to pull a sub-1 minute 5 second lap out of the bag, but it’s really close across the field. I’ll be looking to get a good start tomorrow and push to get on the podium. Leon will be strong yet again and the racing close, so it won’t be easy.” Qualifying 2 Results: 1. Leon Camier Airwaves Yamaha 1:04.930 2. James Ellison Airwaves Yamaha 1:05.407 3. Josh Brookes HM Plant Honda 1:05.455 4. Stuart Easton Hydrex Honda 1:05.485 More, from a press release issued by Team Suzuki News Service: Michael Rutter will start from the fourth row of the grid in tomorrow’s British Superbike Championship races at Snetterton. A glitch with the brakes on the Worx Crescent Suzuki GSX-R1000, caused by a melted tyre warmer, created a delay for the team in the middle of the second qualifying session in the Swan Combi 50 Roll-for-Pole. While the team quickly rectified the situation, with over seven minutes to the end of the session, it began to rain just as Rutter returned to the track and, in Team Manager Jack Valentine’s words; “we were snookered”. The disappointment followed the euphoria of three very positive free practice sessions that culminated in Rutter posting second fastest time, barely two-tenths-of-a-second behind Pole-sitter Leon Camier. Michael Rutter: “This isn’t the result we were due. All through practice we’ve been very strong and I’m delighted with the set-up we have on the GSX-R1000. That second fastest time in practice is a better reflection of how well prepared we are. “Now it’s going to be a lot of work to make the results we’re looking for – podiums. In years gone by if you had a works bike you practically had your own lane, so you could make up the places easily. Now, there are good bikes right down the grid. What happened was just one of those things. And it couldn’t have come at a worse time, but we’ll just have to do the best we can.” Jack Valentine – Team Manager: “That was a disaster. We had the smallest problem; literally some material melted from the tyre warmers onto the discs, but it came at a critical time. Everything with the bike was bang on and we knew from the sector times of the previous laps that Michael was ready to put in a good lap. “One positive thing we can add is Michael’s been putting together some very good practice starts today. So let’s hope he can put two of those together tomorrow. He should get into the top-10 pretty quickly: After that, it’ll be harder work. But he’s shown he has the lap speed and he knows what’s at stake. I think we can expect some very exciting racing from Michael tomorrow.” ViSK British Superbike Championship Qualifying: 1. Leon Camier (Airwaves Yamaha) 1m: 04.930s 2. James Ellison (Airwaves Yamaha) +0.477s 3. Josh Brookes (HM Plant Honda) +0.525s 4. Stuart Easton (Hydrex Honda) +0.555s 5. Julien Da Costa (MSS Colchester Kawasaki) +0.576s 6. Simon Andrews (MSS Colchester Kawasaki) +0.586s 7. Ian Lowry (Relentless Suzuki by TAS) +0.634s 8. Chris Walker (Motorpoint/Henderson Yamaha) +0.669s 9. John Laverty (Buildbase Kawasaki) +0.710s 10. Jason O’Halloran (SMT Honda) +0.759s 20. Michael Rutter (Worx Crescent Suzuki)