Championship leader Jack Kennedy claimed pole position for this afternoon’s Quattro Group British Supersport/GP2 Sprint race with the HEL Performance/Bournemouth Kawasaki rider lapping more than half a second quicker than Jamie Perrin and Bradley Perie.

With drops of rain all around the Kent venue, it was Perie who set the initial pace on the Appleyard/Macadam Yamaha, some 2.2s clear of Currie with Mason Law (Spirit Motocorsa) and Scott Swann (IFS Racing Yamaha) in hot pursuit but the conditions could clearly be seen in the lap times which were some seven-seconds slower than Friday’s times.
 
As the session wore on, the pace did increase with Perie the first to dip below 1’35 with a lap of 1’34.867 putting him two-tenths of a second ahead of Eunan McGlinchey (Gearlink Kawasaki) with Law in third.
 
Title favourite Kennedy then upped the ante to go quickest only for Perie to respond with the first 1’33 of the session. However, the rain had now gone away, for the time being, and times were dropping all the time.
 
Indeed, this could be seen after ten minutes when Perie’s team-mate Rhys Irwin went to the top of the leaderboard with a 1’32.192, a time quickly bettered by Kennedy and then Perie, the latter now into the 1’30’s.
 
With 15 minutes to go, it was Kennedy who was in the top spot, the Kawasaki man’s time of 1’29.773 putting him a slender 0.031s ahead of Perie with Perrin in third and the leading GP2 runner.
 
Kennedy then extended his advantage further with the first sub 1’29 lap of the session, 1’28.895, and at the mid-way point, the running order was Kennedy, Perrin, Perie, Irwin, Josh Day and Ben Currie, the latter the only man who can deny Kennedy the title.
 
The rain then returned which saw all the riders call back into pit lane and with only limited track activity after that, the positions remained the same with Lee Johnston, Law, Charlie Nesbitt and Danny Webb rounding out the top 10.

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