Kagayama on pole

Yukio Kagayama has returned from injury to take pole position for this weekends British Superbike races at Brands Hatch.

The Japanese Rizla Suzuki rider, who missed the last round after suffering a broken collar bone, set the pace to beat all weekend. He ended Friday’s practice sessions with the top time and finished on pole position after saturday’s qualifying sessions with a best lap of 1:26.177.

Sean Emmett, winner at the last round, was the closest man to Kagayama finishing the second qualifying session just 0.053 seconds down on his Monstermob Ducati 999.

Gary Mason took third place on the grid on the Virgin Yamaha R1 with the Honda Fireblade riding Michael rutter taking the final place on the front row.

Kagayama’s team-mate and current championship leader John Reynolds managed to qualify in six position behind Virgin Yamaha’s Tommy Hill, despite breaking his collar bone just two weeks ago. Reaynolds says he is simply riding a damage limitation exercise to get as many points as he can and prevent himself slipping from the lead while he is injured.

Fresh from winning the F1 Race in the Isle of Man TT John McGuinness qualified in ninth place, filling in for the injured Glen Richards on the Hawk Kawasaki.