Martin reigns to claim Superbike pole

Guy Martin was the rain master at Dundrod yesterday when he put his Relentless Suzuki by TAS on pole position for tomorrow’s McKinstry Skip Hire Ulster Grand Prix Superbike races.

The Lincolnshire ace was the only rider to break the 120mph lap barrier in the superbike session on a wet Dundrod Circuit yesterday.

Cameron Donald set the early pace from Ryan Farquhar and Martin, but on his sixth lap of nine the Englishman went round the 7.4mile circuit in 3m 41.721secs, a speed of 120.17mph which remained unbeaten as he finished eight-tenths of a second ahead of Donald, Keith Amor and Gary Johnson.

William Dunlop jumped from 21st to fifth with 10 minutes remaining on the Wilson Craig Honda while his brother Michael, languishing in 20th, came into the pits, put on a new rear wet tyre and promptly leapfrogged to seventh position for a second row starting position.

John McGuinness ended the session in eighth while circuit lap record holder Bruce Anstey finished a lowly 20th.

Scotsman Amor snatched pole position from Michael Dunlop in the final moments of supersport qualifying with a last lap speed of 117.285mph, a quarter of a second ahead of Dunlop with Donald and his Wilson Craig Honda team-mate William Dunlop completing the front row. Michael Dunlop got his pole position in the final qualifying session for Superstock machines leaping ahead of Martin in the final three minutes with a speed of 120.869mph, the only rider to top the 120mph mark in this particular session on a wet track.

Ian Lougher topped the 250GP class, almost 10 seconds ahead of Seamus Elliott, while in the concurrently ran supertwin class Wayne Hamilton was 4.2secs ahead of race favourite Ryan Farquhar.


Ulster Grand Prix qualifying times:

Superbike: 1st G. Martin 120.169mph, 2nd C. Donald 119.695, 3rd K. Amor 117.838, 4th G. Johnson 116.967, 5th W. Dunlop 116.925, 6th R. Farquhar 116.502.

Supersport: 1st K. Amor 117.286mph, 2nd M. Dunlop 117.155, 3rd C. Donald 116.595, 4th W. Dunlop 116.200, 5th G. Martin 115.986, 6th B. Anstey 114.743.

250GP: 1st I. Lougher 110.307mph, 2nd S. Elliott 106.099, 3rd O. Linsdell 105.932, 4th P. Robinson 104.889, 5th D. Robb 104.013, 6th L. Vernon 101.727.

Supertwin: 1st W. Hamilton110.232mph, 2nd R. Farquhar 108.306, 3rd J. Burrows 105.702, 4th A. Archibald 104.482, 5th M. Sweeney 103.091, 6th J. McCann 101.611.

Superstock: 1st M. Dunlop 120.870mph, 2nd G. Martin 119.986, 3rd W. Dunlop 119.335, 4th B. Anstey 119.073, 5th M. Pearson 118.962, 6th G. Johnson 118.117.