Thomas and Sendo steal pole.

By Adam Arnold

Dean Thomas left it till the dying stages of the final qualifying session to take the pole position ahead of tomorrows sixth British Superbike round at Thruxton. Sean Emmett keeps his improved form and takes second closely followed (by a thousandth of a second) by Michael Rutter. John Reynolds makes up the last position of the front row.

Dean Thomas on the F02 Sendo Ducati Dienza 998 set the fastest time of the day in this afternoon's final qualifying session ahead of the F04 Monstermob Ducati of Sean Emmett. For Thomas this was the first pole position in his British Superbike career.

The weather was a great deal warmer than this morning therefore it was late in the session, when the necessary changes had been made, before the times started to tumble.

John Reynolds managed to steal third position with only two minutes left on the clock. However Michael Rutter had other ideas and within seconds had stolen third from the championship leader.

Hawk Kawasaki riders Glen Richards and Scott Smart had less of a successful second session. Richards was unable to improve his first session's time but it was good enough to secure him fifth on tomorrow's grid. Smart, who was fifth fastest in the first session had to settle for sixth.

MotoGP's Gregorio Lavilla, the replacement rider in for the injured Kagayama, was the one of the first of the top ten from this morning to improve his position. His improved time saw him fire up the time sheet into third, from ninth, with fifteen minutes left of the session. This caused a flurry of quicker and quicker times from the rest of the field to see Lavilla in a final position of seventh.

Final qualifying top ten
1. Dean Thomas Sendo Ducati
2. Sean Emmett Monstermob Ducati
3. Michael Rutter HM Honda
4. John Reynolds Rizla Suzuki
5. Glen Richards Hawk Kawasaki
6. Scott Smart Hawk Kawasaki
7. Gregorio Lavilla Rizla Suzuki
8. James Haydon Virgin Yamaha
9. Gary Mason Virgin Yamaha
10. James Ellison* Jentin Yamaha

* indicates cup runner