All the qualifying news and results from the first round of the British Superbike Championship at Brands Hatch.
The final qualifying positions for both classes are as follows:
British Supersport Championship Qualifying - Brands Hatch - Round 1
1. Hudson Kennaugh – Raceways Yamaha (1:29.077)
2. Glen Richards – Map Embassy Racing (1:29.322)
3. John McGuinness – Padgetts Batley Ltd (1:29.509)
4. Craig Fitzpatrick – BLDS Couriers (1:29.797)
5. Chris Martin – Gearlink Kawasaki (1:29.874)
10. Paul Young – Map Embassy Racing (1:30.354)
National Superstock 600 Championship Qualifying – Brands Hatch - Round 1
1. Luke Jones – RDL UK1 Racing (1:33.310)
2. AJ Venter – Map Embassy Racing (1:33.994)
3. Jay Dunn – Bespoke racing (1:34.004)
4. Chris Northover – Team HARIBO Starmix (1:34.258)
5. Joel Morris – A1 Motorcycles (1:34.385)
And here’s how it happened
Friday 4th April
The dismal weather that had been forecasted looked a million miles away from Brands Hatch on Friday. It was a glorious day that seemed to put the entire team in a buoyant mood.All three riders and mechanical staff were pleased with how the practice sessions went, bar a few anticipated technical glitches. With the bikes prepped and primed the team got down to business in earnest with AJ Venter’s first qualifying round for the Metzeler Superstock 600 Championship taking centre stage at 4.55pm.
AJ finished the session in second place, making the most of the fantastic weather conditions on an extremely crowded track with 53 bikes jockeying for position. That result left AJ in confident mood ahead of his second qualifying round on Saturday.
Saturday 5th April
The team awoke at 6.30am to some pretty dismal weather. It had rained overnight and was lying heavy on the ground outside.A disappointing start to the day, considering the previous two days of sunshine at the track. However, the weather began to clear up and with the sun making a fleeting, but significant appearance, slowly but surely the Brands Hatch circuit began to dry out as the team prepared for the day’s qualifying sessions.
Glen Richards and Paul Young were up first in the Fuchs-Silkolene British Supersport Championship first qualifying session at 9:00am.With the track still wet in places it was always going to be a tough ride for the two Aussies.Glen set the pace early on, taking pole position closely followed by Hudson Kennaugh of Yamaha Raceways. Paul didn’t have quite the same fortune as Glen. His throttle was sticking open which forced him wide on a number of occasions and allowed other riders to pass forcing him back to 19th where he finished the session.
The second qualifying session proved to be much better for Paul however.He managed to overcome his throttle problem and clinch a combined qualifying classification of 10th, a fantastic effort considering his first session.For Glen it was more of the same, but lost his pole to Kennaugh and will start in second place on the grid on Sunday.
With Paul and Glen knowing what they had to do on Sunday all eyes turned to AJ. He started his second qualifying session just as the rain cloud that had hovered over the circuit for most of the afternoon finally caved which made for some damp and dismal racing.He went out on a wet-set bike knowing he would struggle to better his time from Friday but so would everybody else. As expected the first qualifying sessions stood and AJ will start in second place on the grid for Sunday.
The team left the circuit Saturday evening pleased with the work done and hopes were high for similar if not better results than those gained today.
