British Superbike Championship title favourite Kyle Ryde made the perfect start to his weekend at Brands Hatch by topping the pre-qualifying session.
Ryde can make history this weekend by becoming the first BSB champion to successfully defend his crown with a different manufacturer. He’ll also become the first rider to win three consecutive titles since Niall Mackenzie completed his hat-trick in 1998.
Ryde, who sits 53 points clear of Scott Redding with 105 up for grabs this weekend, posted a best lap-time of 1.24.611. That was enough to put Ryde 0.134s clear of Max Cook, with the latter targeting a maiden BSB victory this weekend.
Danny Kent completed the top three for Cheshire Mouldings Yamaha ahead of Redding and Rory Skinner.
Bradley Ray was sixth for McAMS Yamaha, with Ryan Vickers and Christian Iddon ending the opening day in seventh and eighth respectfully. Joe Talbot completed the top 10 on the second AJN Steelstock bimota .
Storm Stacey and Lee Jackson secured the final two automatic Q2 spots, with Glenn Irwin missing out by a mere 0.035s.
Josh Brookes and Jason O’Halloran ended the pre-qualifying session in 14 th and 15 th , ahead of Eugene McManus, Scott Swann and Ilya Mikhalchik
Richard Kerr and Fraser Rogers completed the top 20 ahead of the returning Charlie Nesbitt. The latter is riding for Bathams AJN Racing Ducati this weekend following his departure from TAG Racing earlier in the season.
Andrew Irwin, Luke Hedger and Brayden Elliott were the final classified riders on Friday afternoon.
Saturday’s Q1 qualifying session is schedule to begin at midday and will be followed by Q2 at 12:22. Race One of the weekend is due to begin at 16:05.
Sports Reporter - Motorcycle racing enthusiast Josh joined the MCN team in 2019. He studied Sports Journalism at the University of Sunderland, leaving with a 2:1 and a Gold Standard Diploma in Journalism from the National Council for the Training of Journalists (NCTJ). Introduced to the world of motorcycle racing by his dad as a youngster, Josh became a fan of MotoGP, WorldSBK and BSB. Like many, Josh became a huge Valentino Rossi supporter…little did he know that years later he would ask a question or two to the man himself.
Sports Reporter and fan of all things motorsport