HM Plant Honda's Jason O'Halloran claimed provisional pole for the Metzeler National Superstock 1000 Championship at the British Superbike Championships with a lap of 46.566s in the first qualifying session but Danny Buchan on the Team Green/MSS Colchester Kawasaki, pushed him hard, closing to within 0.105s.
"It was a good session today, there was quite a lot of traffic so it was hard to get a string of fast laps but the time we did puts us fastest across both groups so I am feeling good about tomorrow. I still feel like we have a few tenths left in us for the final qualifying session, but I really believe we can be in contention for pole and that would be the best possible way to start the season with HM Plant Honda," O'Halloran said.
"The weekend has gone well and we have been consistently fast throughout the sessions," O'Halloran added. "We have a good race pace and we know there are a few different changes we still would like to test in warm up tomorrow. I am happy that we will be starting from pole position and the lap was under the record pace so everything is good and I am ready to race now."
Flying Scot Jimmy Storrar was third fastest on his BMW, while Tristan Palmer riding the GBmoto Honda had to settle for fourth place on the combined leaderboard, despite running fastest in his group.
Adam Jenkinson was fifth fastest on the www.padgetts-motorcycles.co.uk Honda, ahead of Blackhorse Kawasaki rider Victor Cox, Richard Cooper on the Buildbase BMW and MSS Colchester Kawasaki's Howie Mainwaring.
