Croft British Superbikes: Cal Crutchlow scores career fourth pole

Cal Crutchlow has backed up his fine Croft pole from 2007 with Rizla Suzuki with another first position British Superbike start tomorrow.

The HM Plant Honda rider posted a best lap of 1.20.386, over a second slower than his pole lap last year.

That takes the 22-year olds pole count to three for the season after starting from the prime position at Oulton Park for rounds three and seven.

Equally as impressive was Michael Rutter’s final qualifying phase lap that was good enough for second.

Rutter set a time a full two tenths off the 2006 British Supersport Champions pole lap, but it was a respectable time considering the poor fortune he’s had so far this weekend.

Rutter has had his number one bike die on him twice today, once in the first phase of qualifying but luckily after he’d managed to get into the top 20.

Shane Byrne also had a gutsy qualifying session, putting up the best time in phase two of qualifying with a 1.20.748. But the battered and bruised championship leader could only knock another tenth off that time to go third.

Byrne is still suffering after a big off yesterday that has injured his shoulder, and rumour has it he’s replaced the tooth that was knocked out in the crash yesterday but it has become dislodged again during the qualifying session.

Leon Haslam made sure HM Plant Honda had two bikes on the front row, demoting the new WSB graduate Tom Sykes back to the second row.

Leon Camier, Karl Harris and Michael Laverty completed the second row, while Gary Mason heroically out qualified James Ellison’s Hydrex Bike Animal Honda on his Daily Star Cup Quay Garage machine.

All the British Superbike action is scheduled to kick off at Croft at 13:15 tomorrow.

CROFT BRITISH SUPERBIKE QUALIFYING RESULTS

1. Cal Crutchlow HM Plant Honda 1.20.386
2. Michael Rutter North West 200 Ducati 1.20.597
3. Shane Byrne Airwaves Ducati 1.20.663
4. Leon Haslam HM Plant Honda 1.20.706
5. Tom Sykes Rizla Suzuki 1.20.787
6. Leon Camier Airwaves Ducati 1.20.802
7. Karl Harris RM Racing Yamaha 1.20.950
8. Michael Laverty Relentless Suzuki 1.21.029
9. Gary Mason Quay Garage Honda 1.21.379
10. James Ellison Hydrex Bike Animal Honda 1.21.447
11. Atsushi Watanabe Rizla Suzuki 1.21.853
12. Simon Andrews Lloyds British Jentin Yamaha 1.21.874
13. Scott Smart Hawk Kawasaki 1.22.258
14. Guy Martin Hydrex Bike Animal Honda 1.22.439
15. Jason O’Halloran SMT Honda 1.22.573
16. Stuart Easton MSS Discovery Kawasaki 1.22.622