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Stobart Vent Axia VK Honda rider Tom Sykes continued his tremendous 2007 form by storming to his debut pole position at the penultimate round of the Bennetts British Superbike Championship at Donington Park today.

Following on from successful podiums at Croft and Cadwell last month, the 21 year old Yorkshireman put in a lap of 1m 30.901s which was under the existing lap record and as a result will start tomorrow’s two 20 lap races from pole position.

It wasn’t quite such a good session for Shane ‘Shakey’ Byrne who was hoping to replicate his pole position of Snetterton.

The 30 year old Londoner ended up seventh and as a result will start from row two of the grid as the team looks to continue their good run of results.

Tom Sykes:  “I did a stint at the beginning of the session on a race tyre and I felt that was good enough for pole position so I was happy with that, and I know we’ve got a good race set up.  I pulled my fastest lap out of the bag towards the end of the session and its all credit to the team who have done a brilliant job, although we haven’t really had to do much to the bike this weekend.  I just want to get a good start tomorrow and hopefully convert the pole into a win.”

Shane Byrne:  “It was a bit of a tricky session, with a bit of rain around at the beginning and the second lap was the quickest of the whole session for me.   We tried a different race tyre and did some more strong laps and then put a qualifier in again towards the end but I went a bit too steady on my out lap and made a mistake on the second and nearly fell down.  I’ve been unlucky in qualifying and I’ve only had one good qualifying session all season and that was at Snetterton when I got pole.”

Paul Bird:  “I’m really pleased for Tom, he’s been threatening to do this all season long and now he’s finally managed it.  It’s great for our little team that we can manage to do this sort of thing as we don’t have the factory backing like a lot of teams in this Championship.  Hopefully Shakey and Tom can come up with some more silverware tomorrow.”

The first of the Bennetts British Superbike races gets underway at 12.45 with the second one at 16.25, both screened live on ITV4.

Qualifying

1, Tom Sykes (Stobart Vent Axia Motorsport Honda) 1m30.901s, 2, Chris Walker (Suzuki) 1m31.055s, 3, Leon Haslam (Ducati) 1m31.109s, 4, Ryuichi Kiyonari (Honda) 1m31.185s, 5, Cal Crutchlow (Suzuki) 1m31.255s, 6, Jonathan Rea (Honda) 1m31.399s, 7, Shane Byrne (Stobart Vent Axia Motorsport Honda) 1m31.559s, 8, Gregorio Lavilla (Ducati) 1m31.620s, 9, Karl Harris (Honda) 1m31.689s, 10, Michael Rutter (Kawasaki) 1m31.953s.

Sunday 23^rd September

09.15 – 09.30          Warm Up

12.45                       Race 1 - 20 laps

16.25                       Race 2 - 20 laps

ITV4 Broadcast:  12.30 – 17.10

Sky Sports 3:         19.30 - 23.00

Round 1 – 7^th to 9^th April – Brands Hatch GP, Kent

Round 2 – 14^th/15^th April – Thruxton, Hants

Round 3 – 27^th/29^th April – Silverstone, Northants

Round 4 – 5^th/7^th May – Oulton Park, Cheshire

Round 5 – 18^th/20^th May – Snetterton, Norfolk

Round 6 – 15^th/17^th June – Mondello Park, Co Kildare

Round 7 – 30^th June/1^st July – Knockhill, Fife

Round 8 – 13^th/15^th July – Oulton Park, Cheshire

Round 9 – 20^th/22^nd July – Mallory Park, Leics

Round 10 – 10^th/12^th August – Croft, North Yorkshire

Round 11 – 25^th/27^th August – Cadwell Park, Lincolnshire

Round 12 – 21^st/23^rd September – Donington Park, Leics