Camier quickest in Saturday BSB practice

Leon Camier set the pace in this morning’s BSB free practice at Thruxton for tomorrow’s second round of the Bennett British Superbike Championship. The Bike Animal Honda rider was the only one to break the 1:15s barrier with a 1:14.9 – just outside Gregorio Lavilla’s lap record of 1:14.89 set in last year’s races.

Lavilla was second quickest, 0.15s off Camier’s pace with Virgin Yamaha’s Tommy Hill and Shane Byrne on th Stobart Honda completing the top four.

Leon Haslam was fifth quickest from Ryuichi Kiyonari, Tom Sykes, Jonathan Rea and Karl Harris with less than a second separating the top nine riders.

Dean Thomas had a scary moment when his Samsung Superbike Suzuki engine blew up early in practice when he was cranked over in Turn Two.  He brought the bike under control without crashing but the session was red-flagged to clear up the oil his GSX-R1000 deposited on the track.

Cal Crutchlow crashed on the exit of the chicane but was unhurt. He wound up 10th quickest, with Rizla Suzuki team-mate Chris Walker 11th.  Privateer Cup rider Tom Tunstall’s Hardinge Honda engine expired in a cloud of oil smoke late in the session and Michael Rutter’s MSS Kawasaki ran out of fuel as he continued to circulate despite his in-board being shown! He was 13th quickest but says the new ZX-10 is improving all the time.