Hill on top at Cadwell

Added on Saturday, May 22nd, 2010 by Carole Nash Editor

Tommy Hill was the man to beat in the British Superbike Swan Combi Roll for Pole this afternoon, stealing pole position at Cadwell Park.

Despite a lot of pressure from his nearest rivals, Hill was able to secure a fast enough time earlier on in the third and final knockout session, to give him a pole position start for the first race at the Lincolnshire circuit tomorrow. A time of 1:27.744 seconds allowed the Worx Crescent Suzuki rider to hold onto pole until the end.

As Hill put in his best time, Josh Brookes, Michael Rutter and Michael Laverty were all on the ball, and each determined to steal the position away from him. The final session of the Roll for Pole outing made for very exciting viewing, with everyone keen to put in the best performance they could.

Brookes eventually set the second fastest time, just 0.355 seconds behind Hill, with Rutter third. Ryuichi Kiyonari pipped Michael Laverty at the end to qualify fourth, pushing Laverty back to fifth. Tommy Bridewell will start the first of tomorrow’s Cadwell adventures from sixth, while Stuart Easton endured a difficult session to qualify seventh. After setting the quickest time in the first free practice session of the weekend, Easton was on top form as ever, however after making some changes to his Swan Honda during qualifying he struggled somewhat.

Chris Walker rode his MSS Colchester Kawasaki to eighth, with John Laverty in ninth. Gary Mason, after running in the top three during the earlier qualifying sessions crashed out, meaning he was unable to rejoin the track. As a result of his incident he suffered from concussion and will not be racing tomorrow, despite recording the tenth quickest time.

Commenting on his pole position, Hill told the BSB website: “I am happy to be on pole; it is always the goal but to be honest we have struggled a bit this weekend and everyone is so fast I knew it would be tough.

“We have changed the forks over several times and then went back to basics but now we are up here and that is the main thing. We needed to be here though as it is so close between the top guys that anything less would have made life tough for race one,” he added.

Cadwell Park, BSB, Qualifying Positions:

Pos Rider Team Time