Four-time MCE British Superbike Champion Shane Byrne completed his free practice hat-trick at Thruxton this morning and goes into Superpole at the top of the timesheets but young gun Luke Mossey is snapping at the Be Wiser Ducati man’s heels.
Byrne spent a majority of free practice three working on his race setup but came out for his final exit and threw down a best of 1’14.455 which was just over a tenth outside the new outright lap record he set yesterday at the Hampshire circuit.
But Quattro Kawasaki’s Mossey was not too far behind, sticking in a 1’14.513 to cement his second place while Snetterton race one winner Jason O’Halloran bagged third place but the Honda man is a little way off the pace on a 1’15.223.
Buildbase BMW’s Lee Jackson continues his impressive turn of pace at Thruxton, setting the fourth best time of the weekend so far and is just a tenth behind O’Halloran. Dan Linfoot, on the second works Honda, is fifth on a 1’15.380.
RAF BMW’s Jake Dixon rocketed up the order with his last run, finding more than half a second over yesterday best to bag sixth place with a 1’15.411 while Jakub Smrz was also on fire, taking the Smiths BMW to seventh with a 1’15.470.
Christian Iddon hasn’t managed to improve on his time from yesterday’s opening period but that lap of 1’15.538 - set with cooler track temperatures, is enough for him to sit in eighth. Billy McConnell continues to make progress with the FS3 Kawasaki and took ninth place with a half-second improvement from yesterday.
Michael Laverty ended in tenth on the Tyco BMW and is 1.201s off the pace, just head of Richard Cooper and Peter Hickman, the first of the JG Speedfit Kawasakis. Ryuichi Kiyonari, who has a hate/hate relationship with Thruxton, is 12th, one ahead of James Ellison.
The Cumbrian, along with team-mate Leon Haslam, is struggling with the pair setting identical laptimes of 1’15.861 but are some 1.5s slower than Byrne’s best and they complete the top 15.
In terms of race pace, Byrne looks happy lapping in the 1’15s consistently with O’Halloran able to match him. The Ducati man put in seven laps under 1’15 in free practice three while the Australian did the same before slipping into the low 1’16s as his tyre dropped.
Mossey had an in-out session, putting in three laps in the 1’15s but only completing ten flying laps compared to O’Halloran’s 22. Jackson can hang together a handful of 1’15s before moving into the 1’16s and that is the same story for Linfoot, so on current form and track temperature, it is a Honda-Ducati battle at the front tomorrow.
