Ryuichi Kiyonari saved his best qualifying performance for the final round of the THINK! British Superbike Championship, taking pole start for the races at Donington Park with a time well inside the two year old lap record.

The 21 year old Japanese powered his HM Plant Honda around the 2.5 mile Leicestershire Grand Prix circuit in a best time of 1m 31.952s, some 0.868secs inside the record.

“I am very happy with my first pole - I rode this circuit last year in MotoGP and we tested the Fireblade here earlier this season. This has made a big difference to my qualifying performance as I do not have the same experience at other tracks.

“In the races, I am going to push very hard as I hope to enjoy my first victories in this championship,” smiled Kiyonari, whose team-mate Michael Rutter was relegated to third place on the leaderboard by a late burst of speed from MonsterMob Ducati rider Sean Emmett.

Rutter goes into the races knowing that he has to hit double top of denying John Reynolds a third title, but that it a tall order as the Rizla Suzuki rider needs to score only eight points to regain the `number one' plates.

“I am going out there to win - that is all I can do,” said Rutter, sentiments echoed by Reynolds. “That is the way to earn a title.” The rider from nearby Nottingham was fifth fastest, having qualified marginally slower than Glen Richards. He starts the races from the second row of the grid, as does his team-mate Yukio Kagayama, eighth fastest, despite twice crashing at Coppice Corner during the final session.

James Haydon, eleventh fastest, also took a bruising during an eventful session when he crashed spectacularly on the fastest part of the circuit as his Virgin Mobile Samsung Yamaha swerved wildly out of line on fluids dropped a split second earlier by another machine.

James Ellison, already assured of the Superbike Cup, was the fastest qualifier in the category for Independent teams and riders, recording a time a quarter of a second faster than that of local rider Jon Kirkham.

In the National Superstock Championship race, Andy Tinsley held off a race long threat from French ace Julien Da Costa to move within two points of series leader Danny Beaumont who finished third.

ends