Source: BSB.

Shane ‘Shakey’ Byrne scorched inside his own Snetterton lap record to claim his second pole start of the season ahead of the third round of the MCE Insurance British Superbike Championship at the Norfolk circuit in a top ten that featured six different nationalities.

Rapid Solicitors Kawasaki’s Byrne leads the title standings, despite being beaten to the line by 0.118s at the previous round by the Australian, but he overcame the challenges from his rival with a stunning lap of 1m47.488s.

Byrne, who is bidding for a record-breaking fourth title, said: “I’m really happy with that time. For me, the session was all about making sure that I was in the top three to take a front row start and I had a goal of the lap I wanted to set.

“But when I saw the time come up, I was really, really happy. We had made some changes to the bike and they really worked, but now we have two long races here and that is what it is all about.”

Czech Republic rider Jakub Smrz completes the front row of the grid, the first for the Millsport Ducati team and the first in four years for the Italian manufacturer. His best lap came in a last lap dash which pushed Frenchman Julien Da Costa and his Honda back on to the second row alongside Tommy Bridewell on the second Milwaukee Yamaha and James Ellison riding the Lloyd British GB Moto Kawasaki.

Swiss rider Patrick Muff ran seventh fastest on the Bathams BMW with his best performance of the season, ahead of three times champion Ryuichi Kiyonari and his Buildbase BMW team-mate James Westmoreland. Keith Farmer completed the top ten qualifiers despite crashing his PR Kawasaki in the session.

The opening Supersport race of the weekend was won by Graeme Gowland over Alastair Seely and Aussie Billy McConnell – just 0.409s separating the pace-setting trio at race’s end.

Danny Buchan claimed pole position in the Superstock 1000 ranks, with Jason O’Halloran top Australian in second from session one. David Johnson will line up seventh. In Superstock 600 Levi Day will start sixth as leading Australian, with Benjamin Currie 11th and James Mutton 17th.

2014 British Superbike Championship
Round three – Snetterton

Superbike qualifying results:
1. Shane Byrne 1m47.488s
2. Josh Brookes (AUS) 1m47.974s
3. Jakub Smrz 1m47.994s
4. Julien Da Costa 1m48.071s
5. Tommy Bridewell 1m48.079s
6. James Ellison 1m48.337s
7. Patric Muff 1m48.400s
8. Ryuichi Kiyonari 1m48.841s
9. James Westmoreland 1m49.124s
10. Keith Farmer
14. Josh Waters (AUS) 1m49.676s
28. Mitchell Carr (AUS)

Click here for detailed results