Rea tops BSB practice

Jonathan Rea set the pace in the first free practice session at Oulton Park in preparation for Bank Holiday Monday’s fourth round of the Bennett’s British Superbike Championship.

His best time on the HM Plant Honda of 1:35.92 was only half a second outside team-mate Ryuichi Kiyonari’s lap record of 1:35.43 set last July.

Leon Haslam, still heavily bruised on his thigh and back after last weekend’s crash in practice at Silverstone, was second quickest on the Airwaves Ducati, 0.47 off Rea’s best.

Kiyonari and Virgin Yamaha’s Tommy hill completed the top four quickest.  Shane Byrne, Greogior Lavilla,  Tom Sykes filled the next three spots. After their great showing at Silverstone Rizla Suzuki, got off to a steady start at Oulton with Cal Crutchlow eighth and Chris Walker 12th.

Simon Andrews was back in action on the Jentin Yamaha after the team missed Silverstone. Andrews was ninth quickest on the 2004 model R1.

Hudson Kennaugh was 15th quickest on the Virgin Yamaha. He’s replacing James Haydon on the Virgin Yamaha and did over 40 laps of testing at Cadwell earlier in the week to get acclimatised to the Pirelli-shod superbike. He’s also racing in the National Superstock series and qualified quickest in the first session of the weekend on a Raceways Yamaha R1.

The session was briefly halted to clear debris from a bird strike! Scott Smart clouted a bird at the high speed and its remains were on the racing line.