Silverstone BSB: Camier’s ninth pole of the season

Leon Camier took his ninth pole position of the year ahead of tomorrow’s penultimate rounds of the MCE British Superbike at Silverstone.

Camier only needs to finish ahead of his Airwaves Yamaha team-mate James Ellison in the points to clinch the title and he set a blistering pace well inside the lap record in the final qualifying session. 

He said: “That was one of the hardest sessions of the season, but it everything is going to plan.

“Hopefully we can keep it going like this in the races and get the job done but James is going to be very competitive and I need to keep the pressure on in the races.

“I need a good start, not one of my strong points, otherwise I’ll make things hard for myself. I have to get away with them, but be sensible.

Ellison is less than a tenth of a second down in second place on the grid, and needs to score heavily to maintain his drive for second place in the championship ahead of Hydrex Honda’s Stuart Easton.

Josh Brookes took third place on the grid with a lap of 1:25.96 on the HM Plant Honda but admitted he and his crew were at a loss to unlock the half a second or so that would put them in front of the blue Yamahas.

Easton completes tomorrow’s front. The fastest starter in BSB goes into tomorrow’s races 32 points down on Ellison and in determine mood to repeat his Croft victory.

Easton’s team-mate Tommy Hill was fifth quickest with John Laverty sixth on the Buildbase Kawsaki,  MSS Colchester Kawasaki’s Simon Andrews and Worx Suzuki rider Sylvain Guintoli completing the second row.

National Superstock Champion Alastair Seeley qualified an impressive 16th on the Relentless Suzuki with a best lap of 1: 27.24 – an impressive performance on a bike that has been built to the proposed new 2010 BSB Evo class with a (standard) superstock engine in a superbike chassis.

Michael Rutter’s return to BSB with a Bathams Brewery-backed Ducati (the v-twin he last raced in 2008) was hit a series of engine problems in free practice and a quickshifter packing up in qualifying. He ended up 21st.

Karl Harris had been as high as sixth in free practice in his debut on the SMT Honda but his qualifying run turned into a disaster when his bike refused to hold a line throughout the session. He wound up 22nd.

Top ten qualifying times
Leon Camier (Airwaves Yamaha) 1m:25.391s
James Ellison (Airwaves Yamaha) +0.097s
Josh Brookes (HM Plant Honda) +0.577s
Stuart Easton (Hydrex Honda) +0.700s
Tommy Hill (Hydrex Honda) +0.954s
John Laverty (Buildbase Kawasaki) +1.006s
Simon Andrews (MSS Colchester Kawasaki) +1.049s
Sylvain Guintoli (Worx Crescent Suzuki) +1.130s
Julien Da Costa (MSS Colchester Kawasaki) +1.166s
Ian Lowry (Relentless Suzuki by TAS) +1.268s