Josh Brookes will start from the second row in tomorrow’s opening MCE Insurance British Superbike Championship race at Snetterton, after a changeable qualifying session that saw mixed conditions during the three stages.

Brookes had lapped at record pace throughout the free practice sessions and as the conditions changed and the rain began to fall towards the end of qualifying, he headed out on track to post a time that would put him fourth fastest and just 0.160s adrift of the front row.

Parkes had a bitter blow in qualifying after running inside the top five throughout the earlier sessions when he pitted after his initial lap following a minor problem. However as he returned to pitlane the rain began to fall and destroyed any chance of a faster lap and he will start 19th on the grid for the first race.

Josh Brookes

“The difficult qualifying session ruined my rhythm a little bit this afternoon. If we have over thirty degree track temperature we know that we have a set-up that works but with the track temperature being low I was not getting the grip that I was looking for and had at the test.

"We are trying other things to see if we can make the bike work better in cooler conditions and these changes haven’t all come together just yet. If you look at my times throughout the day we can do 1min 47 laps on lap 10 rather than just a single quick lap so we should be stronger for the race. I am feeling confident that we can pick people off in the race tomorrow and have a good result.”

Broc Parkes

“We have had the seat set higher recently and as my bad luck seemed to continue this afternoon, the foam slid off so I came back in to get it sorted and was unlucky to be caught out by the conditions changing before I could get a lap in. The plan now is to stay out of trouble in the first race and get a good result and then fight on again in race two. We have shown that we have the speed and it is all about performance on raceday. This year so far I have had more than my share of bad luck so I am hoping we have our share of good luck tomorrow.”