BSB: Mossey takes pole after delayed qualifying

Luke Mossey will start on pole position for tomorrow’s opening MCE British Superbike race after a tricky qualifying session at Knockhill.

After the track was left contaminated following blow-ups for both a KTM RC390 and a Sidecar, riders were given an extra ten-minute practice session to assess track conditions ahead of the scheduled qualifying session.

However, returning from that assessment, riders were in agreement that the track was in no condition to push on in qualifying. Race director Stuart Higgs delayed proceedings by just over an hour as the track was further cleaned with detergent, even allowing British Touring Car Champion Gordon Shedden out for a few laps in the Safety Car to help dry the circuit and assess conditions.

Riders were given another ten-minute practice session to further assess the track and put more rubber down before a single 30-minute qualifying session instead of the three-phase format.

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Mossey set a quickest time of 48.297sec, slower than he’d lapped earlier in the day due to the change in track conditions, to take his first pole of the year for JG Speedfit Kawasaki. 
It was a story of the young guns with Jake Dixon joining Mossey on the front row after an impressive lap saw him just 0.1sec off his fellow Kawasaki rival to take his first BSB front row despite a late session rash.

James Ellison defied an early crash at the hairpin to return to circuit to set the third quickest time.

Be Wiser Ducati’s Shane Byrne heads up row two ahead of the Honda of Jason O’Halloran with Anvil Hire Yamaha’s Josh Brookes rounding out the top six.

Sylvain Guintoli enjoyed his best qualifying of the year and will start seventh on the Bennetts Suzuki ahead of Jakub Smrz and team-mate Taylor Mackenzie. The second Honda of Dan Linfoot heads up row four in tenth place. 

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