Byrne and Brookes fastest in dry and wet

Shane Byrne and Josh Brookes have topped the timesheets on the opening day of the MCE British Superbike championship’s first visit of the year to Oulton Park, after wet weather hit the afternoon session at the Cheshire track.

It was Byrne to powered to P1 in the dry first track session, finishing 0.35 ahead of Tyco BMW rider Tommy Bridewell and title rival Ryuichi Kiyonari. His PBM Kawasaki teammate Stuart Easton kept making solid progress in fourth, ahead of James Ellison and Jason O’Halloran.

With the heavens opening for the afternoon’s track activity, though, it was Josh Brookes on his first ever wet laps on the Milwaukee Yamaha who took the top spot, ahead of Howie Mainwaring and Bridewell, making solid progress on the BMW.

Wet weather specialist Michael Rutter was fourth on the Gearlink Kawasaki, ahead of Lloyds British Moto Rapido Ducati rider Jakub Smrz and Byrne.

The wet session saw a number of fallers, with Peter Hickman and Rhalf Lo Turco visiting the medical centre, while Michael Laverty, Billy McConnell and Broc Parkes all crashed, resulting in two red flags.

Free practice 1

1. Shane Byrne
2. Tommy Bridewell
3. Ryuichi Kiyonari
4. Stuart Easton
5. James Ellison
6. Jason O’Halloran
7. Josh Brookes
8. Peter Hickman
9. Danny Buchan
10. Jack Kennedy

Free practice 2

1. Josh Brookes
2. Howie Mainwaring
3. Tommy Bridewell
4. Michael Rutter
5. Jakub Smrz
6. Shane Byrne
7. Westmoreland
8. Danny Buchan
9. Richard Cooper
10. Broc Parkes