Pole at record breaking pace for Michael Rutter

Michael Rutter powered to pole start at record breaking speed for the

double race third round of the THINK! British Superbike Championship at

Snetterton (Sunday 25 April) in which he aims to regain his advantage in

the chase for the crown.

The HM Plant Honda Fireblade rider has a single point deficit on John

Reynolds going into the races at the super-quick Norfolk circuit.

Rutter used the Honda power to good effect, putting in two fast laps in the

final ten minutes of the session to top the leaderboard for the second time

this season: "I'm feeling good, having put in a lot of consistent laps on

race tyres, and have the bike really well set-up. I am feeling good for the

races, and it would be good to beat John here on a circuit where he would

expect to go well on the Suzuki."

His best lap of the 1.952 mile circuit came in a time of 1m 05.713s and

that was sufficient to hold off the late challenge to his superiority from

Aussie Dean Thomas riding the Sendo Ducati who closed within 0.053 seconds,

his best ever qualifying performance.

Sean Emmett, riding with a broken finger on his left hand, secured a front

row start for his MonsterMob Ducati though his time was matched by series

John Reynolds, aboard the Rizla Suzuki.

For both, victories are top priority. Emmett, despite taking a race win

last time out, is still playing catch up on the leading duo, while

Reynolds, determined to take a third crowns is preparing for a real battle:

"the action is tighter that ever, but the harder the races, the harder I

will be riding - I want to win here."

Ryuichi Kiyonari, aboard the second Honda, heads the second row, ahead of

Scott Smart riding Hawk Kawasaki and Steve Plater, seventh fastest, repaid

the overnight efforts of the Virgin Mobile Samsung Yamaha who rebuilt his

bike after it had been virtually destroyed in a 160 miles an hour crash in

Friday's free practice.

Plater escaped with a bruising, as did Yukio Kagayama, who also crashed on

Friday, but bounced back to complete the second row ahead of Glen Richards

and James Haydon, the former Foggy Petronas rider, who is making a

'one-off' appearance for ETI Ducati in place of their injured rider Stuart

Easton.

ends