Wet conditions at Donington Park today saw Chris Walker take pole from fellow championship contender Neil Hodgson.  Yamaha riders Michael Rutter and Anthony Gobert complete the front row.

In his last ever British Superbike Championship qualifying session, Niall 
Mackenzie, who had been on provisional pole for most of the first session, 
upped the pace in the second session and will start tomorrow's two 22 lap 
races at the Leicestershire circuit from fifth on the grid: "I had a slow start to the second session," said Mackenzie, "and felt like I was going backwards for a while, but we made a few changes and things soon started to work. I was improving with each lap and in fact, my fastest lap was my final one.  Apparently, that lap put my own team mate on row two for a while, but fortunately for Neil, he went a bit quicker and got back onto the front row. I've always found qualifying quite good fun and I'm going to miss it in the future when I've stopped racing. It would have been good to have finished up on the front row, but I'm just going to have to get off the line quicker tomorrow and see what happens!"

Neil Hodgson, currently second in the series and holder of the National Circuit lap record, qualified second on the grid with a best time of 1:16.360. The 26-year-old was second fastest during yesterday's three-hour practice session and now has a good set-up whatever the weather conditions are. With his future lying in World Superbikes with GSE Racing, the INS Ducati rider is looking forward to the final two rounds of the domestic series: "It would have been great to have finished final qualfying with another pole,  but the important thing is that I am on the front row," said Hodgson, who also posted his fastest time of the day on the very last lap. "I had a couple of misfires on the final lap, which affected my time slightly, but apart from that, the factory Ducati feels great. I'm enjoying myself and feel incredibly relaxed at present, but am looking forward to getting on with the racing tomorrow, when I'll be giving it my best shot to get the results the team deserves." 

Qualifying
1) C. Walker (Suzuki) - 1:15.830 
2) N. Hodgson (INS Ducati) - 1:16.360 
3) M. Rutter (Yamaha) - 1:16.597 
4) A. Gobert (Yamaha) - 1:16.732 
5) N. Mackenzie (INS Ducati) - 1:16.739 
6) S. Byrne (Honda) - 1:16.975 
7) J. Reynolds (Ducati) - 1:17.009
8) D. Jefferies (Yamaha) - 1:17.443
9) J. Crawford (Suzuki) - 1:17.586
10) S. Plater (Kawasaki) - 1:17.946