An extremely frantic and close DataTag Extreme Qualifying session saw Paul Bird Motorsport duo Shane Byrne and Stuart Easton take a 1-2 result for the first time.
Byrne, despite crashing out with only minutes to spare, held on to take qualification victory – after dipping below lap record pace to set a winning time of 48.153 seconds, just 0.052s ahead of Stuart Easton.
Josh Brookes piloted his Milwaukee Yamaha to a front row start by registering a lap of 48.219s, also under lap record pace, for a third place grid position for tomorrow’s opening race.
In a fraught and tense opening qualification session that saw Taylor Mackenzie, Broc Parkes and Jack Kennedy miss out; it was a straight fight between Byrne, Bookes and Easton at the top of the times. The same trio would again dominate the 2nd qualification session, with Easton causing panic in the pits by requesting his team swap his clutch as the session rolled towards the end.
In Q3, that decision by Easton looked to be going wrong as he returned to the pits after only one lap. However, the pint-sized Scot returned to track and immediately set about challenging Byrne’s quickest time. With Byrne forced to watch the closing moments of the session from the sidelines, after he fell from his bike at Clark’s; but no-one was able to better Byrne’s previously set time and he claimed a famous win – on a day that looked touch and go at the start of the morning, given all the troubles with rain, track damage and fog.
“I’m not 100% convinced that we had a good rear tyre on there; I went into Clark’s and lost the front. We’ve been fastest in every session so far this weekend; so we’ll get the bike patched up and look towards two strong races tomorrow,” said Byrne.
Easton on the other hand was delighted to be on the front row for tomorrow’s opening race as he looks to take his first-ever Superbike race win at Knockhill; he said:
“Great to have made the front row. We had a mystery clutch problem in Q2 which the team changed for me – sorry for the stress guys. But now I just need to find away to get in front of Shakey.”
Tickets for tomorrow’s MCE British Superbike event can be booked online until midnight this evening (subject to advanced booking discounts) Alternatively, tickets will be available at the gate – for what promises to be a spectacular day of racing at Knockhill Racing Circuit.
