Lloyds British GBmoto Racing Kawasaki's James Ellison celebrated his first MCE Insurance British Superbike Championship pole position of the season at Brands Hatch by mastering the drying conditions to edge out Shane 'Shakey' Byrne and Josh Brookes.

Ellison, who proved he is ready to fight for his first win of the season today said:

"This is my first pole and it is a big achievement for me and the team, to come back and do this so I want to thank everyone who has made this possible. To start the weekend off well is what we needed and I wanted to be on the front row, I have a lot less to lose than the other guys so I was taking risks and thankfully we got the pole."

Ryuichi Kiyonari chose to sit out the Datatag Qualifying session and the opening race after his crash this morning as the Buildbase BMW rider pins his hopes on a potential return to the track for the two races tomorrow.

In the opening session James Ellison set the pace from Jon Kirkham whilst Byrne was seventh after saving an off track moment when he ran on at the end of the Cooper Straight. MCE BSB's only female contender had her best session of the season as she qualified for Q2, before sliding out of contention at Stirlings.

In the final Q3 session Ellison admitted he had pushed hard to score the pole position with Byrne and Brookes completing the front row, pushing Kirkham back to head the second row of the grid for the Halsall Biker Gear Kawasaki team.

MCE Insurance British Superbike Championship, Brands Hatch, Datatag Qualifying:

James Ellison (Lloyds British GBmoto Racing Kawasaki) 1m:26.188s
Shane Byrne (Rapid Solicitors Kawasaki) +0.032s
Josh Brookes (Milwaukee Yamaha) +0.186s
Jon Kirkham (Halsall Biker Gear Kawasaki) +0.372s
John Hopkins (Tyco Suzuki) +0.636s
Tommy Bridewell (Milwaukee Yamaha) +0.848s
Peter Hickman (RAF Reserves Honda) +0.869s
Dan Linfoot (Quattro Plant Kawasaki) +1.109s
Julien Da Costa (Honda UK) +1.148s
Gary Mason (Tsingtao Kawasaki) +1.566s



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