Brands Hatch BSB: Broc Parkes tops Friday practice

The World Superbike pairing of Broc Parkes and Sheridan Morais topped the timesheets in free practice at Brands Hatch on Friday afternoon in preparation for this weekend’s British Superbike round.

The Paul Bird Motorsport riders were almost half a second quicker than the rest of the field with Stuart Easton leading the regular BSB field in third.

After the morning’s session was affected by damp, misty conditions, this afternoon was effectively the first ‘real’ session and Parkes and Morais held the top spots for the majority of the 50-minutes.

However, it was the Australian who came out on top with a lap of 1m26.910s around the 2.3-mile GP circuit and he got the better of Morais, deputising for the injured Makoto Tamada, by 0.113s.

Easton put in a time of 1m27.435s towards the end of the session to slot in to third with Tommy Hill and Chris Walker continuing their strong Mallory Park form in fourth and fifth respectively.

Julien da Costa ensured it was a strong start to the weekend for Kawasaki as he took sixth on the MSS Colchester machine.

Karl Muggeridge improved steadily throughout the session and took seventh for HM Plant Honda with Michael Rutter, having his first outing on the MSS Colchester Kawasaki, showing well in 8th.

Meanwhile, championship leader Leon Camier could only manage ninth on the Airwaves Yamaha although he fared a lot better than team-mate James Ellison who ended up last after only completing four laps.

Steve Brogan on the second HM Plant Honda took 12th.

Practice times – Friday
1 Broc Parkes (PBM Kawasaki) – 1m26.910s
2 Sheridan Morais (PBM Kawasaki) +0.113s
3 Stuart Easton (Hydrex Honda) +0.525s
4 Tommy Hill (Worx Crescent Suzuki) +0.784s
5 Chris Walker (Motorpoint/Henderson Yamaha) +0.865s
6 Julien Da Costa (MSS Colchester Kawasaki) +0.994s
7 Karl Muggeridge (HM Plant Honda) +1.027s
8 Michael Rutter (MSS Colchester Kawasaki) +1.102s
9 Leon Camier (Airwaves Yamaha) +1.111s
10 John Laverty (Buildbase Kawasaki) +1.238s