British SuperSport 2000 - Oulton Park - Qualifying
| Kirk McCarthy, will start tomorrow’s
seventh round British Supersport championship race at Oulton Park from the front row of
the grid after setting the fourth fastest qualifying time today. McCarthy’s Castrol Honda team-mate, John McGuinness, was third fastest behind Dean Thomas and Jim Moodie but the Lancastrian crashed his 250 machine in the following qualifying session, fracturing his hip joint and ruling him out of tomorrow’s 18-lap race. In each of his three outings on the Castrol Honda CBR600, McGuinness has qualified on the front row but injury at Snetterton three weeks ago forced him to withdraw from the Supersport race. He finished in seventh place at Silverstone a week later. McGuinness’s withdrawal promotes McCarthy to third place on the grid and the Australian is hoping to continue the form that saw him take victory in the last round at Silverstone with a dramatic last lap manoeuvre on his former team-mate Moodie. "I feel really sorry for John," said the Australian. "He’s taken to the CBR really well and qualified it on the front row for the last three meetings. But he couldn’t race at Snetterton after crashing his 250 and now he’s out again." McCarthy was satisfied with his own front row performance, however, saying: "The wind was up a bit for that second session but it wasn’t too bad. The bike was running good and although it won’t be easy tomorrow, I reckon it’ll be all right." Final qualifying times: |