PBM Kawasaki’s Stuart Easton was never outside the top three fastest times throughout the MCE British Superbike qualifying sessions at his home circuit of Knockhill, but the Hawick rider did experience a clutch issue, which was swiftly rectified by his team, paving the way for the wee Scotsman to bag a front row start.
Easton has yet to win a BSB race at his local track and is now in a good position, starting from second on the grid, just ahead of Milwaukee Yamaha’s Josh Brookes. The diminutive racer lapped a super quick 48.205, going under Buildbase BMW’s Ryuichi Kiyonari’s lap record at the circuit.
But he was not able to match the pace of his team-mate, Shane Byrne who pipped Easton to the post on the timing-screens, despite ending Q3 in the gravel. Now the clutch issue has been resolved Easton will be fully focused on getting that all important maiden win on Sunday.
“I am excited, and it is the same as last year. I did a 48.1 last year and I was half a tenth off pole, but at least I am on the front row in second place - its a shame I never got pole but second place is good,” said Easton, at the Scottish track.
“Getting into Q2 can be tricky as everyone is on virtually the same lap times so I was a bit stressed with that, and then I had a bit of a panic on with my clutch. Then I had to apologise to the team as I made them change the clutch mid qualifying session, and we had a bit of a mystery problem but it seemed OK at the end - and we are fine for tomorrow.”
