Shane Byrne will be targeting a second win of the Bennetts British Superbike Championship after qualifying on the front row of the grid at
Oulton Park.
The Airwaves Ducati rider, winner of the opening race of the campaign at
Thruxton, posted his fastest lap of 1min 37.188secs during the final ten minutes of the session but it wasn't enough to see the experienced rider get ahead of Cal Crutchlow, who instead took pole for HM Plant.
“I am reasonably happy with that!” Shakey said. “Before the session conditions looked mixed and it was difficult for us to commit to wet or dry settings. It was our plan to be on the front row and we have done that, I thought I might take pole at one stage but I just lost out in the last few minutes.
“It is good as we now have race settings sorted for both wet and dry conditions; the Airwaves Ducati team have been great this weekend, now it's down to me to finish the job!”
Byrne's team-mate within the Airwaves team, Leon Camier, will start from the second row of the grid in seventh place having posted his quickest time on the penultimate lap of the session although admitted afterwards that he should be inside the top four at least.
“I am not best pleased with that as I feel I could have gone faster and probably got my Airwaves Ducati on the front row,” he said. “It was my mistake, I was continually running off the dry line on the first corner and that was slowing me down a lot.
“I was starting to get it together towards the end of qualifying but I did not get as many clear laps as I wanted, so could not improve my time further. I am aiming for a podium tomorrow and I think if I get a good start and stay consistent then I can achieve that.”
