Bradley Ray claimed his third pole position of the Bennetts British Superbike Championship season in an incredibly close Datatag Qualifying session at Cadwell Park this afternoon, surging ahead of his rivals to secure the top spot for the Buildbase Suzuki team ahead of tomorrow’s opening race in Lincolnshire.

Just 0.858s covered the top nine in the intense final stage of Datatag Qualifying as championship Leon Haslam set the initial benchmark on the JG Speedfit Kawasaki before Ray, who is bidding to secure his position in the Showdown, upped the pace to move ahead by 0.036s.

Jake Dixon will complete the front row for race one on the RAF Regular & Reserves Kawasaki after he set the pace yesterday in free practice. Glenn Irwin narrowly missed out on a front row start in fourth place, but only just with a margin of just 0.002s between the Be Wiser Ducati rider and Tommy Bridewell on the Moto Rapido Ducati.

Danny Buchan secured the final second row starting position for the FS-3 Racing Kawasaki team after he made a mistake on his flying lap and despite trying to improve his position he starts sixth on the grid.

Christian Iddon was the leading BMW rider in Datatag Qualifying at Cadwell Park; he starts seventh on the grid after diving through to the final Q3 stage for the Tyco-backed squad with local contender Peter

 Hickman completing the second row for Smiths Racing BMW.

Josh Brookes will start ninth on the grid after forcing his way through to Q3 on the McAMS Yamaha in a tough session for the 2015 champion who is aiming to add to his recent podium-finishing momentum.