Photo Gallery: British Superbikes, Croft R10 - Race Day #1

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Round 10 of the Bennetts British Superbike series was held at the North Yorkshire circuit of Croft, just outside Darlington, a circuit famed for it's unreliable weather. This meeting proved this to be the case again with dry practice and qualifying days but a wet/dry race day. Tyre choice was hard in all races and those who got it wrong would suffer badly.

Heading into the meeting Ryuichi Kiyonari lead his team mate Jonathon Rea by 16 points with a total of 298 points for 9 meetings which, after a little mathematics, suggests that Kiyo has averaged a third place in every race. So both the HM Plant Honda riders appear to be dominating the series so far and this is despite both riders taking tumbles on the last couple of circuits. Chasing the black and orange Fireblades are the red Airwaves Ducatis of Leon Haslam (267 points) and Gregorio Lavilla (246) who haven't dominated this season as perhaps expected.

So with races running out in the 2007 Championship, the chasing pack need to get some race wins if the HM Plant team aren't to romp home to another series win, and 'Stormy' Rea needs to get the jump on his team mate more often if he hopes to spoil Kiyo's plans of a second consecutive series win.

As it turned out however, it was the new boy Cal Crutchlow who stuck his Rizla Suzuki on pole position during Saturday's Qualifying session ahead of Jonathon Rea's Fireblade with Kiyo only managing a poor 7th position on the second row.

Race 1 saw Rea lead from the start with Kiyo in pursuit and on lap 8 the inevitable happened as the number 1 machine of Kiyonari slide underneath Rea at the hairpin to take the lead and race win. Rea finished second and there was a close battle for 3rd between pole-sitter Crutchlow and the Stobart Honda of Tom 'Smiler' Sykes that eventually the green machine won giving Sykes his first podium result in the BSB series. Not surprisingly, nor unusually, the likeable Yorkshireman Sykes was grinning like a kid on the podium. Behind the celebrations Crutchlow was equally delighted with his pole position and highest finish in his debut year in BSB. So a good result for the newbies then.

Race 2 had more action with a couple of crashes although the result had a familiar ring to it with Rea leading off the line but Kiyo catching and passing the Irishman on lap 6 to take his 34th race win since arriving in the series in 2004. Rea finished second which means the gap between the two riders has grown to 26 points, a handy margin when a race win only scores 25. Sykes proved that his podium in race 1 was no fluke by relegating Lavilla to fourth place.

In the Maxxis Superstock Series it was a maiden win for the delighted Billy 'Skippy' McConnell on the Virgin Media Yamaha R6 who said "I'm absolutely chuffed; my Dad is here from Australia at the moment so it makes it even sweeter". Well done Billy, a well deserved win. The usual suspects - the TAS Relentless Suzukis - had a mixed race with Lowry finishing 3rd and Laverty not finishing due to mechanical problems. Second place was taken by Dennis Hobbs on the Padgetts Honda CBR600RR which means that the championship remains as was with Laverty leading from Lowry and Hobbs, but the gaps between the riders has reduced significantly as the season enters its final races.

- AH

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