REYNOLDS CLAIMS KNOCKHILL POLE
03 July 2004 - THINK! British Superbikes

THINK! British Superbike Championship - round eight

John Reynolds is on pole for the Scottish eighth round of the THINK! British Superbike Championship after an early dash around the Knockhill circuit before the heavy rains wrecked qualifying.

The Rizla Suzuki rider gambled that there was at best time for ten laps in the morning session and he put them to good effect, recording a best time of 50.740s around the short, but demanding 1.299 mile Fife circuit, at an average speed of 92.13mph.

''We could see the rains were closing in, so decided to go for it - I''ve got the time, but only managed eight laps, and really could have done with more to get the bike really sorted for the races, but we are all in the same position,'' explained Reynolds who is racing on despite the pain from a broken left collarbone sustained in a racing crash a month earlier.

Yukio Kagayama starts alongside him at the front of the grid, with HM Plant Honda rider Michael Rutter, who goes into the races aiming to reduced the 29 points deficit he has on Reynolds third fastest on the leaderboard.

James Haydon, riding the Virgin Mobile Samsung Yamaha, completes the front row of the grid, the Hawk Kawasaki duo of Scott Smart and John McGuinness on the second row along with Sean Emmett, on the MonsterMob Ducati and Gary Mason, riding Yamaha.

Their hopes of improving their grid position were thwarted as continuing heavy rains lashing down and leaving standing water on the circuit led to lengthy delays and then the abandonment of the second session, with the starting grid for the two races decided on performance during the morning session.

That was also the case in the other major championships. Michael Laverty is on pole for the British Supersport Championship on the MonsterMob Ducati, with series leader Karl Harris, Honda, sixth fastest and starting from the second row of the grid. John Pearson takes pole for the British 125GP race with Steve Allan edging out local favourite Les Shand at the top of the qualifying leaderboard in the National Superstock Championship.

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