Swan Yamaha’s Tommy Hill set the fastest time in the opening two free practice sessions at Cadwell Park at the eighth round of the MCE Insurance British Superbike Championship.

Hill had waited until the closing stages of the opening session to move to the top of the timesheets which he followed up with the fastest lap in second free practice before heavy rainfall bought the session to a premature end. Noriyuki Haga continued to learn the challenging circuit; he tipped off in the early stages at the Hairpin to end the day nineteenth fastest.

Hill said:

“We were happy with our pace today; we made some changes in the second session and we also changed the engine but I had a bit of a nightmare to start with as I forgot to put my ear plugs in again and I can’t explain what that is like but I only managed the one flying lap before I had to come in. That was a good lap and then the session was stopped with Shakey’s (Shane Byrne) crash and then we had a huge hailstorm. We still have some changes we want to try to the chassis in the last free practice session tomorrow morning before qualifying as we lost some time today with the weather but I am fairly happy and I want to send my best wishes to Shakey.”

Haga said:

“I have been learning the track today and the first session we did some laps and then made some small changes to the rear suspension and I had a good feeling. I had a small crash this afternoon; I caught the engine casing on the kerb and then after that it was very bad weather and we had the red flag. I didn’t do any more laps but this track I am still pushing to learn as it is not what I am used to but we can improve again tomorrow. I need to try for the best results we can this weekend because it is important for the Showdown.”

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