Croft British Superbikes: Cal Crutchlow pole reaction

Cal Crutchlow has admitted he was as surprised as anyone when he scored his third pole of the season at Croft, his second BSB pole at the North Yorkshire circuit in consecutive years.

Crutchlow set a best time of 1.20.386, a full second slower than the pole lap he set last year on the Rizla Suzuki,

He said: “I’m a bit shocked to be honest – I’ve never liked Croft, but with my second pole in the Superbike class in a row here, I’m getting to like the place more and more!

“Poles are all well and good, but I now have to turn this into two race wins – that’s what I want and need. I really want to win in front of HM Plant’s home crowd and then get back up the order in the championship.

“The HM Plant Fireblade feels pretty good around here, but we do have a little rear-end chatter in the final hairpin.

“It’s not affecting us too much though, as we’ve still got pole!”

Crutchlow’s team-mate, Leon Haslam, has won the last three races but could only manage the final spot on the front row for today’s race with a time over three tenths slower than his 22-year old compatriot.

But Haslam remains positive today and will be working in this afternoon’s Warm-up session to try to resolve some chatter problems that have held him back over the past two days.

“We’ve had some small rear-end chatter issues here, but overall I’m happy to be on the front-row of the grid,” Haslam said.

“Apart from that the HM Plant Honda Fireblade feels pretty good around here and I’m confident we can have two good races.

“A good start will be critical, but I want to continue where I left off at Cadwell a few weeks ago – especially in front of so many guests from HM Plant, our sponsors who are local to Croft.”