Ryan Vickers set the fastest two-wheel lap of Cadwell Park this afternoon, launching to the top of the times for the RAF Regular & Reserve Kawasaki team on his final lap of SUPERPICKS Free Practice ahead of tomorrow’s opening Bennetts British Superbike Championship BikeSocial race.
The Norfolk contender left it until the final minutes of the session to up the ante, striking with a sequence of laps that put him 0.312s clear of his nearest rival and championship leader Jason O’Halloran.
O’Halloran had just pipped Peter Hickman in the closing moments, moving second ahead of the local hero who had set the pace this morning. The leading three riders were under the existing lap record, set by Lee Jackson in 2017 with a time of 1m:26.478s.
Tommy Bridewell had been one of the first riders to improve on his earlier session time, setting the pace at the halfway stage, but he would end the session fourth fastest, just ahead of the leading VisionTrack Ducati of Christian Iddon.
Andrew Irwin was sixth fastest, pushing his brother Glenn into seventh place as the pair continued to swap positions as Lee Jackson completed the top eight ahead of his home round.
Bradley Ray was ninth fastest as Josh Brookes dropped to tenth in the closing stages of the second session after a positive start this morning.
Rory Skinner and Dan Linfoot completed the SUPERPICKS 12 who will progress directly into Q2 tomorrow.
However, Tarran Mackenzie will again have to progress through Q1 tomorrow after a crash at the top of the Mountain during the afternoon session. The McAMS Yamaha rider holds second in the standings ahead of the three races this weekend, but he ended SUPERPICKS Free Practice in 15th place.
Bennetts British Superbike Championship, Cadwell Park, SUPERPICKS Free Practice combined times:
- Ryan Vickers (RAF Regular & Reserve Kawasaki) 1m:25.816s
- Jason O’Halloran (McAMS Yamaha) +0.312s
- Peter Hickman (FHO Racing BMW) +0.515s
- Tommy Bridewell (Oxford Products Racing Ducati) +0.665s
- Christian Iddon (VisionTrack Ducati) +0.844s
- Andrew Irwin (SYNETIQ BMW) +0.867s
- Glenn Irwin (Honda Racing) +0.929s
- Lee Jackson (FS-3 Racing Kawasaki) +0.960s
- Bradley Ray (Rich Energy OMG Racing BMW) +0.996s
- Josh Brookes (VisionTrack Ducati) +1.028s
- Rory Skinner (FS-3 Racing Kawasaki) +1.167s
- Dan Linfoot (TAG Honda) +1.316s
Ryan Vickers – RAF Regular & Reserve Kawasaki
Fastest in SUPERPICKS Free Practice combined times
“It has gone really well today! In the first session, we got familiar with the track again after two years of not being here and we made a few changes, but we didn’t venture too far from what we had after Donington Park.
“We have focused our efforts on playing with a few things and fine tuning as we were in a window of where we felt we need to be, and then we went for a bit of a qualifying drill to see what the bike felt like on new rubber.
“I did the fastest ever two wheel lap of Cadwell! I was surprised with how easy it felt as there is definitely still some time out there that I could have had, but I just made a few mistakes.
“The team have been working in an amazing way, we made another change and went back out but it was the chequered flag, although I think that will be an improvement again when it comes to FP3 tomorrow.”
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