Donington BSB: Three-in-a-row for Kennedy with BSS pole

Mar-Train Yamaha’s Jack Kennedy claimed his third consecutive pole position in the British Supersport Championship, with the fastest time in qualifying at Donington Park on Saturday morning. He lapped almost two tenths of a second quicker than Bradley Perie with Perie’s Appleyard Macadam Yamaha teammate Harry Truelove in third.

Truelove topped the early leaderboard from Kennedy and Perie but the latter quickly went top only for Kennedy to edge him out by 0.069s. That put Truelove down to third although only 0.171s covered the trio. Zak Corderoy (Gearlink Kawasaki) occupied fourth with Lee Johnston (Ashcourt Racing Yamaha) fifth and Luke Stapleford sixth on the second Gearlink machine and, after eight minutes, Perie returned to the top of the timesheets, a lap of 1.08.433s giving him a 0.180s advantage over championship leader Kennedy. With ten minutes to go, Kennedy surged clear with a lap of 1’08.047s and next time around he went quicker still with a 1’07.977s. That turned his deficit into a more than healthy 0.456s with Truelove a further three tenths of a second in arrears in third. Corderoy, Johnston and Stapleford remained in fourth to sixth only for Jaimie van Sikkelerus (MPM Routz Racing Yamaha) to overhaul all of them with seven minutes of the 25-minute session to go. The Dutchman was the last rider to be within a second of the flying Kennedy. There was to be no change in the top three of Kennedy, Perie and Truelove but the gaps between them did change with Perie cutting the gap to Kennedy down to 0.166s and Truelove only three tenths further back. Some late changes lower down saw Johnston jump up to fourth and Sam Munro (Munro Racing Yamaha) put in a strong lap to take fifth and that meant Corderoy and van