Datatag British Superbikes Official Sponsor - Round 3 Brands Hatch Indy
British Superbikes Round 3 Brands Hatch Indy 20-22 May 2016
Mossey claims debut pole position in incredibly close Brands Hatch Qualifying
Luke Mossey claimed his first pole position in the MCE Insurance British Superbike Championship in dramatic style in an intense Datatag Extreme Qualifying session at Brands Hatch, beating James Ellison and Shane 'Shakey' Byrne to the pole position in the final 20 seconds of Superpole.
The hectic Datatag Qualifying saw several riders crashing out of contention in the opening two sessions including James Rispoli, Jack Kennedy and Billy McConnell, but with less than a second covering the top 18 riders at the finish, it was a fight all the way to the flag for pole position.
The battle for Q2 saw Peter Hickman narrowly miss out on joining his JG Speedfit Kawasaki team-mates James Ellison and Leon Haslam in the top nine, however despite a crash in the closing stages of Q2, Jason O'Halloran’s Honda Racing team were dramatically able to turn his Fireblade around so he could set a flying lap in Superpole, although he still held ninth at the chequered flag.
The fight for the pole position was a scrap between the top nine riders and Ellison was the first rider to set the benchmark ahead of Tommy Bridewell on the Bennetts Suzuki as Michael Laverty was on the move, pushing into second place after his initial flying laps.
At the top Ellison was holding on and looked set to repeat his 2015 pole position performance on the Indy circuit, but on his final lap Mossey launched ahead of the JG Speedfit Kawasaki rider and Byrne, who starts from the front row for his home round.
Mossey said: “I wanted to be on the first two rows so the pole position really is a dream come true. We had a good day yesterday and again this morning to be sixth and I felt pretty happy. I didn’t feel that I had done my best lap of the weekend until we got into qualifying and I knew that I had something more in the bag. I have to see what tomorrow brings and I know tomorrow is going to be even tougher. The team have been working hard all weekend and we knew we had it, we just needed some luck, and hopefully we can get our first rostrum of the season tomorrow.”
Laverty heads the second row for tomorrow’s opening race with Richard Cooper splitting the Buildbase BMW and Bridewell who completes the trio, pushing Leon Haslam back to row three ahead of American John Hopkins and O’Halloran.
MCE Insurance British Superbike Championship, Brands Hatch Indy, Datatag Qualifying:
- Luke Mossey (Quattro Plant Teccare Kawasaki) 45.275s
- James Ellison (JG Speedfit Kawasaki) +0.028s
- Shane Byrne (Be Wiser Ducati) +0.114s
- Michael Laverty (Tyco BMW) +0.139s
- Richard Cooper (Buildbase BMW) +0.221s
- Tommy Bridewell (Bennetts Suzuki) +0.328s
- Leon Haslam (JG Speedfit Kawasaki) +0.381s
- John Hopkins (ePayMe Yamaha) +0.482s
- Jason O'Halloran (Honda Racing) +0.563s
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