Metzeler National Superstock 1000 Championship

Jon Kirkham fired a warning to his Metzeler National Superstock 1000 Championship rivals that he intends to seal the title in this round as he put his BMW onto pole start a third of a second up on the rest who were led by Flying Scot Jimmy Storrar.

Kirkham aboard the family entered, with Clarks BMW, bike put in the telling lap with a time of 1m 22.967secs in the dry second session, not that he had not set the pace in the damp, in that session running clear of the former champion Glen Richards.

But, in terms of the grid, it was Storrar, lapping in 1m 23.308secs who started alongside Kirkham atr the front of the grid with Scot Smart running third, a tenth of a second down, aboard the Moto Rapido Ducati with Tristan Palmer, second in the standings, completing the front row line up on his BMW, lapping in 1m 23.512secs ahead of a race in which winning was at a premium to keep in the title chase.

John Ingram headed the second row on his Suzuki with Kenny Gilbertson sixth on the Sorrymate.com Honda from Aussie Richards whose best lap on the Padgetts Honda came in 1m 23.621secs, marginally ahead of Barry Burrell riding the Buildbase Kawasaki.

John McGuinness, the Isle of Man TT specialist, was at the front of the third row on his Padgetts backed Fireblade with Joe Burns alongside while Steve Plater, continuing his racing return after his horror crash during practice for the NorthWest 200 back in May, was looking more confident aboard his HM Plant Honda running with a best time of 1m 23.991secs, little more than a second down on pole starting Kirkham.

Howie Mainwaring, third in the standings, and like Palmer needing a strong result to maintain his hopes faced an uphill struggle as he had to be content with twelfth place on the grid for his MSS Colchester Kawasaki, having put in a time of 1m 24.057secs.

Behind him came Michael Booth, David Paton, Victor Cox and Sam Warren on the fourth row with Lee Jackson, David Anthony, Luke Quigley and Matt Whitman adrift of them on another strong 34 rider starting grid.

Metzeler National Superstock 600 Championship

Josh Day underlined his determination to forge further clear of Danny Buchan in the Metzeler National Superstock 600 Championship title stakes as he headed him off to take pole start, though there was only two tenths of a second between them after a hard fought second dry session.

Riding the AIR Racing Yamaha, Day put in a best lap of 1m 25.067secs, shaving just inside the lap record, as he rode determinedly to stamp his authority on the proceedings though Buchan was hot on the case throughout aboard the Team Green MSS Colchester Kawasaki.

And it was even closer between the two riders scrapping for third place on the leaderboard, with Luke Stapleford finally taking it, with a lap in 1m 25.517secs on his Bournemouth Kawasaki, a mere 0.002secs up on AP Kawasaki riding Josh Wainwright.

John Simpson, the winner of the previous round at Cadwell Park on the Trickbits/T3 Triumph to go into third place in the title stakes, headed up the second row with a best lap in 1m 25.629secs with Jimmy Hill just adrift of Simpson in the standings, unable to match the pole setting performance of his elder brother, Superbike rider Tommy, sixth fastest on his MAP Group Triumph.

Connor Behan was seventh up on the Bristol Kawasaki ahead of Nikki Coates on the TwoWheelTuning.com Yamaha. That left the Lyons brothers duelling for position on the third row, and it was Adam who was the fastest, with a lap in 1m 26.047secs with Liam on the second MCT Suspension/TK Cope Motorcycles Yamaha, running with a time of 1m 26.302secs. Matt Bilton and Dominic Usher completed that row.

James East front up the fourth row, 1m 26.732secs, ahead of Martin Glossop, Anthony Rogers and Brad Anderson with Daniel Kinloch, Anthony Haywood, Tom Young and Alex Olsen lining up adrift of them on another buoyant 40 strong starting grid for this ever competitive series which had Jonathan Lodge on a fifth row that also included Johnny Blackshaw and Tim Hastings.

SpeedyRetail.com British 125GP Championship

James Lodge was eager to make amends for his costly tumble in the previous round at of the SpeedyRetail.com British 125GP Championship at Cadwell Park and the RS Racing Earnshaws Motorcycles rider proved the man for all conditions. The championship leader was comfortably the fastest in the wet session, but, as the sun shone, he came under intense pressure to secure pole start for the second of the two races, the tenth round, at the North Yorkshire circuit.

First of all it was young Taylor Mackenzie, also a faller at the Lincolnshire circuit who closed in on him, but Lodge responded, upping the pace and putting in a flying lap of 1.28.830secs which was enough to see off all challengers, who were finally led by ACU Academy Cup rider Deane Brown aboard the Colin Appleyard/Macadam sponsored bike who moved within 0.429secs of him to start alongside at the front of the grid.

Jon Vincent, running third fastest, enjoyed one of his best qualifying performances of the campaign with a lap barely a third of a second down on Brown whose hopes of further harassing Lodge were ended by a tumble in the closing moments of the session at Lodge.

Mackenzie completed the front row of the grid with a lap in 1m 29.306secs aboard his KRP Node4 MMCG bike but like Brown lost the chance of improvement as he slid off at the Hairpin. Andrew Reid headed up the second row ahead of John Mc Phee, who had also shown good speed in the wet, with Edward Rendell and Sam Hornsey alongside.

Nigel Percy was at the front of the third row ahead of Shaun Horsman while Rob Guiver, the winner of the Cadwell Park, was left cursing his luck, starting from the fifth row, back in eighteenth place on the SP125 Brookhouse Garage Honda, after taking a tumble eight minutes into the dry session at Hawthorn when he was running fourth and looking to challenge.

The grid for the first of the two races, the one held over from the weather ravaged Knockhill round, was as it would have been at the Scottish circuit. McPhee was on pole, ahead of Lodge, Brown and Fraser Rogers.