Pacedayz wild card rider Kyle Ryde will start the World Supersport race at Donington Park from the first row after bagging second place on the starting grid for the race on Sunday.
The Motorpoint British Supersport title challenger put in a super quick lap in the early part of the session and was six tenths under lap record pace this afternoon in cloudy but warm conditions, with a 1’30.344. But the youngster was 0.4 seconds off the coveted pole position spot, and that went to Puccetti Racing’s Kenan Sofuoglu.
The Turkish rider was the only racer to lap inside the 1’29’s and smashed his previous lap record by over one second - breaking his best lap record to boot. The multiple- champ lapped a super impressive 1’29.952 rotation, safely cementing his place at the top of the timesheets and the P1 spot.
MV Agusta’s Jules Cluzel high-sided at Redgate, but fortunately walked away from the crash while he was in a provisional front row spot. Even though his qualifying session came to an abrupt halt the Frenchman managed to cling on to third on the grid, going two tenths slower than Ryde.
The Profile Racing duo of Luke Stapleford and Sam Hornsey made it well inside the top ten fastest times. Stapleford heads up row two with his quickest lap of the weekend so far – a 1’30.563, with Hornsey starting row three. Former MCE British Superbike racer PJ Jacobsen couldn’t penetrate the top three and had to settle for the second row alongside MV Agusta’s Lorenzo Zanetti.
Core Motorsport’s substitute rider, Motorpoint British Supersport stalwart, Andy Reid experienced a technical problem at Melbourne, but managed to re-enter the qualifying session and finish 13th on the sheets and will start on row five.
British hopeful Kyle Smith crashed at Goddards after only six minutes out on track, after colliding with San Carlo’s Marco Faccani. Both riders were declared OK at the trackside. But Smith was not the only rider to crash as Gino Rea fell at Coppice, but managed to get back on the bike to complete the qualifying session. Both Smith and Rea put down times that were good enough to qualify on the third row, with Team Lorini’s Roberto Rolfo completing the top ten.
