Yukio Kagayama outpaced his series leading team-mate John Reynolds in

Friday's free practice for the tenth round of the THINK! British Superbike

Championship at the Croft circuit, which is hosting the country's premier

series for the first time.

The Japanese rider, who still has an outside chance of taking the title

averaged 92.26mph as he topped the leaderboard with a best lap of 1m

22.990s around the tight, demanding 2.127 mile circuit which is located to

the south of Darlington.

Reynolds closed within half a second of Kagayama as the track dried, with

the Nottingham rider intent on maintaining the pace into these races that

could ease him further towards a third crown. He starts with a 73 points

advantage over HM Honda rider Michael Rutter but reckons his focus is

simply on winning races, and not worrying about the title.

"We are going the right direction, that's for sure, but my approach here is

the same as it has been for every other round. Get my head down and get out

there to win the races. It will be a case of riding hard, as the opposition

is as tough as ever," said Reynolds, who won a non-championship race here

some six years ago.

James Haydon, continuing to ride the Virgin Mobile Samsung Yamaha team's

fourth machine, was only marginally slower than Reynolds, as he hunts a

seasonal second victory, with Steve Plater, fully recovered from the arm

injuries that effectively wrecked his season, fourth fastest, just adrift

of his team-mate.

Sean Emmett, who had been fastest in practice during the previous week, had

to settle for fifth best aboard the MonsterMob Ducati, ahead of Ryuichi

Kiyonari and Rutter, whose best lap came in a time of 1m 23.928s.

The Leicestershire based rider had been fastest in the morning's wet

session, and spent time working on the set-up of his Fireblade for races

that are crucial to his hopes of taking the title for the first time: "I'm

not giving up the fight yet - I know there is a lot of hard work to do but

you never know what is going to happen next in racing."

James Ellison, fresh from his superb 'wild-card' performances in the recent

round of the World series at Brands Hatch, set the pace in the Superbike

Cup category, with a best lap of 1m 25.091s aboard the Jentin Yamaha that

has powered well clear in the trophy stakes.

Ends