Cal Crutchlow stormed to his first pole position of 2008 and the second of his British Superbike career at a drying
Oulton Park, seeing off the threat of fellow joint championship leader Shane ‘Shakey' Bryne by almost six tenths of a second.
Crutchlow and Byrne are tied at the top of the riders' standings following a win and runner-up finish apiece at
Thruxton last time out – the first ‘real' meeting of the campaign after the curtain-raiser at
Brands Hatch a fortnight earlier was snowed off – but the HM Plant Honda star's tremendous pace in both free practice and qualifying around Oulton has shown the 22-year-old clearly intends to put some clear air between himself and his Airwaves Ducati rival come race day.
Tom Sykes gave Rizla Suzuki something to smile about by setting the third-quickest time, with pre-season championship favourite Leon Haslam continuing his low-key start to the year in fourth after high-siding early on in the session. Though the son of former GP ace 'Rocket' Ron Haslam was the final man to make the front row of the grid – on his spare bike – he was nevertheless almost eight tenths of a second slower than his pace-setting team-mate.
The second row was made up of Michael Rutter aboard the North West 200 Ducati, Team Yamaha star Karl Harris, the second Airwaves Ducati of Leon Camier and Michael Laverty on the Relentless Suzuki.
James Ellison (Hydrex Bike Animal Honda), Simon Andrews (Lloyds Jentin Yamaha), Stuart Easton (MSS Discovery Kawasaki) and Scott Smart (Hawk Kawasaki) will begin the two Bank Holiday races from row three.
In the battle for the British Superbike Cup pole, Buildbase's John Laverty prevailed in 15th spot outright, ahead of PDM Racing Suzuki's Luke Quigley in 18th and Chris Burns (STP MV Agusta) in 21st.
To see the qualifying times in full,
click here
