Bradley Ray claimed a sensational pole position for this afternoon’s Bennetts British Superbike Championship race at Oulton Park, the Rich Energy OMG Racing Yamaha rider setting the fastest ever two wheel lap of the Cheshire circuit.Ray also posted the first ever 1’32’ lap and was more than three quarters of a second quicker than Tommy Bridewell (Oxford Products Ducati) with Jason O’Halloran (McAMS Yamaha) completing the front row.
It was Josh Brookes, Lee Jackson, Andrew Irwin, Ryan Vickers, Dean Harrison and Takumi Takahashi who progressed from Q1, the Aussie ace topping the leaderboard with a strong lap time of 1’34.291s, but when the 12-minute Q2 session got underway it was Bridewell who set the initial pace with a 1’34.177s.
The first flying lap saw 12 riders in the 1’34’s but Ray completely obliterated the field with his first lap being a sensational 1’32.948s, the first ever 1’32 lap around the Cheshire circuit.
That put him more than a second clear of Peter Hickman (FHO Racing BMW) with Glenn Irwin (Honda Racing), Danny Buchan (Synetiq BMW) and Brookes (MCE Ducati) following, Bridewell pushed back to sixth.