Cadwell BSB: Lowes the time sheets on day one

Alex Lowes was the fastest man in free practice at Cadwell Park today, putting the Samsung Honda 0.2 seconds clear of the Tyco pairing of Josh Brookes and PJ Jacobsen at the Honda team’s local track.

With heavy overnight rain and this morning, the first free practice session of the Bank Holiday weekend was lost – a forecast for sunshine for Sunday and Monday meant that the wet data gained will hopefully be of little use to the teams for the rest of the weekend.

The Samsung Honda team headed the field early in the session, with Lowes and Ryuichi Kiyonari one and two in the session for the first fifteen minutes.

However, Shane Byrne soon managed to take the provisional pole on the Rapid Solicitors Kawasaki, before a flying lap from Brookes took almost 0.2 off Byrne’s lap time and gave the Australian the lead.

However, the Louth team weren’t to be outdone, and a late lap by Lowes left him almost half a second clear of the field, leading a Tyco Suzuki two-three, with Brookes’ rookie teammate PJ Jacobsen moving through the field into third.

An after-the-flag lap by Brookes was enough to close the gap down to only 0.2, but Lowes was able to finish the session on top, setting an unofficial lap record for the lower-tuned spec machines introduced last year.

Afterwards he told MCN that he was happy with how things had gone, and was confident for Monday’s races. “I spent all session on the same tyres, and stayed out to do a long run, which went really well – I’m happy we’ve got the pace to last all race. We’ve still got some things to try for tomorrow, so we’ll see how that goes.”

1 22 Alex LOWES GBR Honda – Samsung Honda 1:27.613
2 2 Josh BROOKES AUS Suzuki – Tyco Suzuki 1:27.814 0.201 0.201
3 99 PJ JACOBSEN USA Suzuki – Tyco Suzuki 1:28.125 0.512 0.311
4 67 Shane BYRNE GBR Kawasaki – Rapid Solicitors Kawasaki 1:28.218 0.605 0.093
5 23 Ryuichi KIYONARI JPN Honda – Samsung Honda 1:28.423 0.810 0.205
6 46 Tommy BRIDEWELL GBR Kawasaki – Halsall Racing Kawasaki 1:28.458 0.845 0.035
7 77 James ELLISON GBR Yamaha – Milwaukee Yamaha 1:28.734 1.121 0.276
8 10 Jon KIRKHAM GBR BMW – Buildbase BMW Motorrad 1:28.797 1.184 0.063
9 9 Chris WALKER GBR Kawasaki – Quattro Plant Kawasaki 1:29.067 1.454 0.270
10 4 Dan LINFOOT GBR Honda – Lloyds British GBmoto Racing Honda 1:29.074 1.461 0.007