Shane Byrne claimed pole start for the fifth round of the Bennetts British Superbike Championship, heading off the challenge of Cal Crutchlow, seconds before a rain shower effectively ended the Swan Combi 50 Roll for Pole session at Snetterton.
The Airwaves Ducati rider, who had made the early running in the session, had come under fire from HM Plant Honda rider Leon Haslam before Crutchlow, currently second into the title stakes, though 68 points down on Byrne, took over at the top of the qualifying leaderboard.
Byrne hit back strongly, timing the lap that took him to a fourth pole start of the campaign to perfection, recording a time of 1m 05.162secs, an average speed of 107.84mph, and just 0.099secs up on Crutchlow, when the rains fell spoiling what was promising to be a real scrap for supremacy at the Norfolk circuit.
“It’s been a tough couple of weeks for us, but we’ve come through it all and done a good job here,” said Byrne. “I enjoy riding this circuit, although it has been hard on me in the past, but we have had no problems here, with the bike running smoothly, with a good setting.
“I’ve never had so many poles as I’m taking this season – it is proving to be a great year and I put that down to us not running qualifying tyres, rather working for smooth, consistent laps, rather than just going out there and putting in one fast one.”
Crutchlow and Haslam have Leon Camier, riding the second Airwaves bike, sandwiched in between them on the front row of the grid, with the top four separated by only a third of a second.
Tom Sykes, riding the Rizla Suzuki, was only a split second down, starting from the second row of the grid with Karl Harris aboard the Rob Mac Yamaha alongside him. Michael Rutter on the North West 200 Ducati and Relentless Suzuki’s Michael Laverty.
Aussie Billy McConnell headed the third row aboard the MSS Discovery Kawasaki, though by only 0.031secs from James Ellison, riding the Hydrex Bike Animal Honda, as the top ten all ran within a second of each other.
Gary Mason was the fastest of the Daily Star Cup contenders, securing a fourth row start, sixteenth fastest, aboard his Quay Garage Honda with a lap of 1m 06.924secs to be just ahead of the series leading John Laverty riding the Buildbase NW200 Ducati.
Tom Tunstall, Leon Morris, Shannon Etheridge and Martin Jessopp completed the Cup qualifiers.
Bennetts British Superbike Championship – top ten qualifiers:1. Shane Byrne (Airwaves Ducati) 1m:05.162s
2. Cal Crutchlow (HM Plant Honda) +0.099s
3. Leon Camier (Airwaves Ducati) +0.258s
4. Leon Haslam (HM Plant Honda) +0.335s
5. Tom Sykes (Rizla Suzuki) +0.378s
6. Karl Harris (Rob Mac Racing Yamaha) +0.743s
7. Michael Rutter (North West 200 Ducati) +0.779s
8. Michael Laverty (Relentless Suzuki) +0.845s
9. Billy McConnell (MSS Discovery Kawasaki) +0.920s
10. James Ellison (Hydrex Bike Animal Honda) +0.951s
