Oulton BSB: Kennedy dominates for BSS pole

Jack Kennedy put in a dominant performance in qualifying for this afternoon’s Quattro Group British Supersport Championship race at Oulton Park with the Mar-Train Racing Yamaha rider taking pole by more than two seconds from the Gearlink Kawasaki pairing of Zak Corderoy and Luke Stapleford.

Bradley Perie (Appleyard Macadam Yamaha) was quickest out the blocks, lapping almost 1.5s quicker than second placed Josh Day (Astro JJR Triumph) with championship returnee Stapleford slotting into third. But Luke Jones (Highsparks Ducati) soon slashed Perie’s advantage and with 15 minutes to go was just 0.069s slower. Stapleford had also upped his pace and was now only 0.400s adrift but championship leader Kennedy and second placed Lee Johnston (Ashcourt Racing Yamaha) remained in the pits as they waited for conditions to improve further. Indeed, the rain had stopped just after the halfway point of the 25-minute session and that’s when Kennedy took to the track, his first flying lap seeing him go quickest by over five seconds, clear indication of just how much conditions had improved! Day moved back into second with eight minutes to go, cutting Kennedy’s advantage to 2.4s and third and fourth place were now occupied by Jamie Perrin (Ready4Racing Vision Kawasaki) and Michael Dunlop (MD Racing Yamaha). Johnston was now out on track too and briefly slotted into third before Perrin and Dunlop regained their positions and Day was now 1.6s behind Kennedy who’d come back into the pits after his earlier fast lap. However, with six minutes to go, Johnston closed to within 0.039s of his fellow Yamaha rider and Stapleford then went to the top of the leaderboard with a 1’41.071 putting him 0.154s quicker than Kennedy. The final five minutes saw