Brookes beats Suzuki’s Ray to Cadwell Park pole

Josh Brookes scored pole position for round eight of the 2019 Bennetts British Superbike Championship at Cadwell Park, heading off Bradley Ray in an unexpected return to form for the Suzuki rider.

Already under the lap record this week at the iconic undulating Lincolnshire venue, Brookes was again in fine form over a single lap on the Be Wiser PBM Ducati, topping both knockout phases before his 1m 26.219s effort in Q3 proved comfortably quickest of all.

His biggest challenge came from a somewhat surprising source though, with Buildbase Suzuki’s Ray landing second on the grid in easily his best qualifying effort of the year. 

A Title Showdown contender in 2018, Ray has struggled for form in 2019 but has shown a steady improvement in results recently, but has good form at Cadwell Park after scoring a pair of podiums twelve months ago.

Tommy Bridewell completes the front row, edging out BSB leader Scott Redding, who pushed Brookes closely in Q2 but couldn’t make a big enough gain in Q3 to challenge for pole.

After showing well in practice, Danny Buchan starts fifth with Jason O’Halloran completing the second row, ahead of Dan Linfoot – who bounced back from a Q1 crash to get seventh – and the Tyco BMWs of Christian Iddon and Glenn Irwin. 

Elsewhere, Title Showdown entry contenders Andrew Irwin and Peter Hickman get underway in 10th and 11th, while Xavi Fores starts 13th and  the injured Tarran Mackenzie soldiers on in 17th.