Tarran Mackenzie claimed pole position for Saturday’s opening Bennetts British Superbike Championship race at Brands Hatch, with the McAMS Yamaha rider topping qualifying ahead of Tommy Bridewell (Oxford Products Ducati) and Rory Skinner, the rookie again impressing on the FS-3 Racing Kawasaki.
The initial 12-minute Q1 session saw some high profile names battling to get into Q2 and although there was a relatively dry line around the 2.43-mile GP circuit, dampness remained in the air.
Indeed, the times were still more than two seconds slower than Friday’s quickest mark when conditions were dry and sunny but the six riders to progress to Q2 were Danny Kent (Buildbase Suzuki), Dan Linfoot (TAG Honda), Ryan Vickers (RAF Regular & Reserve Kawasaki), reigning champion Josh Brookes (VisionTrack Ducati), Joe Francis (Lloyd & Jones BMW) and Skinner.
Onto Q2, which was again held over 12 minutes, and it was Skinner, fresh from Q1, who set the early pace more than a second quicker than anyone else. There was early drama though when Jason O’Halloran (McAMS Yamaha) crashed at Paddock Hill Bend but at the top of the leaderboard, the order at half distance was Skinner, Bradley Ray (Rich Energy OMG Racing BMW), Bridewell, Vickers, Linfoot and series leader Christian Iddon on the second VisionTrack Ducati.
Skinner was the first to dip below 1’27 with a lap of 1’26.814s and Mackenzie and Danny Buchan (Synetiq BMW) quickly followed him to move into second and third quickest respectively.
O’Halloran rejoined the fray with four minutes to go just as team-mate Mackenzie went quickest by three tenths of a second from Bridewell but Skinner quickly responded to go back to the top of the leaderboard albeit by just 0.001s from Mackenzie!
Next time around, Mackenzie went back to the top of the timesheets with a lap of 1’26.192s, which proved to be the pole lap, but Vickers was in a spot of bother and went straight on at Paddock Hill Bend and across the gravel before rejoining.
Bridewell then pushed Skinner back to third with Buchan and Kent in fourth and fifth but although the top three remained the same, a late lap from Ray put him up to fourth ahead of Buchan with Peter Hickman (FHO Racing BMW) going sixth.
That meant Iddon had to settle for seventh with Kent slipping back to eighth ahead of Glenn Irwin (Honda Racing) and Skinner’s team-mate Lee Jackson. Brookes took 12th with O’Halloran unable to climb off the bottom of the leaderboard. He’ll start this afternoon’s race from 18th and the sixth row of the grid.
