Hislop comes good in the wet

Shane Byrne and Michael Rutter topped the time sheets in the first practice session at Oulton Park for the fourth round of the British Superbike championship, but Steve Hislop took the top spot in the drenched afternoon session.

Shane Byrne finished a dry morning practice with a time of 1:39.524 on his Monstermob Ducati, followed closely by Rutter whose fastest time was just two tenths of a second down.

Rizla Suzuki rider John Reynolds proved that he is well on the road to recovery from the broken collarbone he received at Silverstone, finishing in third place just 0.585 seconds down.

Sean Emmett, Steve Plater, and Yukio Kagayama all finished within a second of Byrne.

A good ride from John Crawford saw him finish in seventh with a 1:40.570 and Mark Heckles took his Honda SP2 to a 1:40.828 to round of the top eight.

Steve Hislop was beaten to ninth place by Glen Richards on the Hawk Kawasaki and being followed home by Gary Mason and Dean Ellison, but all that changed in the second practice.

By the afternoon the clouds had come over, the track was wet and many riders chose to put in as few as three laps.

But Steve Hislop put in the most track time completing 24 laps in total and taking the best time of the session, 1:50.395, to finish in first place.

The rain mixed things up a bit slowing down the top riders. Byrne and Rutter took the second and third fastest times but they were followed by John Kirkham in fourth with Steve Plater, John Reynolds, Paul Young and Gary Mason finishing the top eight.

Check back regularly for all the latest from Oulton Park throughout the weekend. Qualifying starts at 3.25pm on Saturday with race one starting at 1.15 on Monday.