Haydon set his record-beating lap in the morning session to take Rizla Suzuki’s first pole position of the 2005 season. His lap-times on race rubber were equally impressive, marking another step forward for the GSX-R1000.

James Buckingham, standing in for the injured John Reynolds, made steady progress in qualification and will start from 22nd on the grid. JR remains in a stable condition in the Darent Valley Hospital in Dartford after his heavy crash yesterday during first practice.

Superbike racing starts at 1315 on Sunday, October 9th, at the 2.6-mile long Brands Hatch GP circuit in Kent. It will be broadcast live on Sky Sports and then on Channel 4 one week later as a highlights package.

James Haydon:
“We made a step forward in performance at the last round and we’ve made more improvements here this weekend. I’m absolutely delighted with my Rizla Suzuki. Now we have found what we have been looking for and the GSX-R1000 is a fantastic package that is a pleasure to ride.

“A huge thank you to the Rizla Suzuki team for working so hard and making the improvements to get us to pole position. It’s my first ever pole position in BSB and the fastest ever lap of Brands GP circuit to boot – I couldn’t be happier.”

James Buckingham:
“The Rizla Suzuki is really quite different to my normal Suzuki race bike and it is taking time for me to get used to it.

“I built myself up gradually through both qualifying sessions and I could really do with another session to get completely up to speed. We made a lot of changes to set-up today and I’m going faster and faster every lap. I’ll be using tomorrow’s warm-up session to improve further and I’m looking forward to race day.”

Robert Wicks, Team Manager:
“Well done to James Haydon and the Rizla Suzuki team for today’s outstanding performance and delivering our first pole position of the season. James is extremely happy with the development of his GSX-R1000 and that shows in his lap times. We are all hoping he can replicate his pole with a front-running performance tomorrow.

“James Buckingham is having to learn about a bike with very different characteristics to his own in a very short period of time. He’s improving all the time and will continue to do so in warm-up and the races as he becomes more familiar with the Rizla Suzuki. His experience on the GSX-R at Castle Combe earlier in the year should hopefully stand him in good stead for tomorrow’s races.

“Our thoughts at this time remain with JR for a speedy recovery. We know he is receiving expert care and his wife Shelly has now joined him from Nottingham. His condition remains stable and a good sign is that there has been no immediate need to transfer him for further assessment, though this will almost certainly take place in the coming days purely as a precautionary measure.”