Be Wiser Ducati’s Scott Redding charged back to the top of the Monteblanco BSB timesheets in the Friday morning session but was again pushed hard yesterday’s quickest man Jason O’Halloran.
Redding put in the fastest time of the test so far, 1 1’36.309, before the lunchbreak and pulled a gap over the McAMS Yamaha man but O’Halloran was having none of it and got back to within two-tenths of the Panigale V4R, setting a 1’36.484 with his final push.
Team-mate Taz Mackenzie, who had yesterday afternoon off following a crash, also crashed the 1’37s barrier with 1’36.904, set on his final lap. He has a two-tenth gap to Honda’s Xavier Fores in fourth place.
Bradley Ray made further progress today on the Buildbase Suzuki, cutting his laptime by seven-tenths to end in fifth on a 1’37.189 with Quattro Kawasaki’s Glenn Irwin only a tenth off his best from yesterday in sixth.
Former champion Josh Brookes, on the second V4R, is in seventh place on a 1’37.427 which is a tenth quicker than his best so far and with the gap to Redding now just over a second.
Luke Mossey, Andrew Irwin and Luke Stapleford complete the top ten with Tommy Bridewell 11th on a 1’37.681, half a second better than he achieved yesterday on the Oxford Ducati.
Claudio Corti, Josh Elliott, Dean Harrison and Ryan Vicker round out the BSB top 15 although Superstock runner Richard Cooper was 15th on the combined sheets.
Ben Currie had a heavy crash right at the start of the session and didn’t post a time but is reportedly undamaged.
