Tommy Bridewell scored his first Omologato Pole Position with Honda Racing UK in a frantic Bennetts British Superbike Championship Speedy Hire Fast 15 Qualifying session at Knockhill.
The reigning champion had seized the advantage earlier in the session, before a red flag interruption when Kyle Ryde crashed the OMG GRILLA Yamaha Racing heavily at turn two. He was able to walk away from the crash, but when the session resumed it was an 11-minute shootout for the positions.
Bridewell had moved to the top of the times, but a resurgent Josh Brookes fired the FHO Racing BMW Motorrad Team ahead with six minutes remaining on the clock. Bridewell wasn’t done though and he set another flying lap with a time of 47.408s that put him 0.058s clear of his closest rivals on his 11th of 13 laps.
Jason O'Halloran will start second on the grid as he closed the margin to Bridewell ahead of him in the closing moments to move up the order from seventh into second and that time put him just 0.018s ahead of Brookes who took the team’s first front row start of the season.
Ryan Vickers had a final surge forward on his final lap of the session to put him into fourth to head the second row and nudge championship leader Glenn Irwin back into fifth place on the Hager PBM Ducat, with his brother Andrew Irwin completing row two with his strongest qualifying performance of the season so far.
Danny Kent who holds second in the standings ahead of race one will lead the charge from row three on the McAMS Racing Yamaha, ahead of home hero Rory Skinner for the Cheshire Mouldings BMW Motorrad team.
Christian Iddon and Ryde, who had both had to progress through Q1 into the Q2 session completed the top ten in ninth and tenth respectively. Meanwhile after his crash yesterday, Leon Haslam will start 14th for the ROKiT Haslam Racing BMW Motorrad team.
Bennetts British Superbike Championship, Knockhill, Speedy Hire Fast 15 Qualifying result:
- Tommy Bridewell (Honda Racing UK) 47.408s
- Jason O'Halloran (Completely Motorbikes Kawasaki) +0.058s
- Josh Brookes (FHO Racing BMW Motorrad Team) +0.076s
- Ryan Vickers (OMG GRILLA Yamaha Racing) +0.991s
- Glenn Irwin (Hager PBM Ducati) +0.095s
- Andrew Irwin (Honda Racing UK) +0.119s
- Danny Kent (McAMS Racing Yamaha) +0.166s
- Rory Skinner (Cheshire Mouldings BMW Motorrad) +0.188s
- Christian Iddon (Oxford Products Racing Ducati) +0.198s
- Kyle Ryde (OMG GRILLA Yamaha Racing) +0.370s
For the full session result please click here