— Lowes tops day one at Silverstone Free practice one: 1: Josh Brookes (Tyco Suzuki) 2m:25.509s 2: James Ellison (Milwaukee Yamaha) +0.657s 3: Josh Waters (Halsall Racing Kawasaki) +1.472s 4: Jakub Smrz (Padgetts Honda) +1.801s 5: PJ Jacobsen (Tyco Suzuki) +1.975s 6: Shane Byrne (Rapid Solicitors Kawasaki) +2.207s Free practice two: 1: Alex Lowes (Samsung Honda) 2m:08.651s 2: Shane Byrne (Rapid Solicitors Kawasaki) +0.251s 3: Josh Brookes (Tyco Suzuki) +0.261s 4: James Ellison (Milwaukee Yamaha) +0.437s 5: Jakub Smrz (Padgetts Honda) +0.895s 6: Matteo Baiocco (Rapido Sport Racing Ducati) +0.910s Alex Lowes waited until the final seconds to upstage his MCE Insurance British Superbike Championship rivals in a last lap dash to steal the top spot ahead of series leading Shane Byrne in free practice for the penultimate round of the MCE Insurance British Superbike Championship at Silverstone. The stage is set for the pair to resume their frantic battle for the crown after the previous round at Assen where Lowes took his seventh victory to close within a point of Rapid Solicitors Kawasaki rider Byrne before an incident in the second saw Byrne crash and Lowes excluded from the race. The pair are now ready to tussle for the two wins on Sunday with Byrne deciding to sport a racing helmet bearing the message: “Warning – objects ahead may be closer than they appear.” Lowes sat out the morning damp session, which was led by Tyco Suzuki’s Josh Brookes, but put in a number of consistent laps aboard his Samsung Honda in the afternoon. “It was good, though still a bit damp in places and we got some good data together. The bike was good and I love this circuit so now I am looking forward confidently to the rest of the weekend. It was a case of getting out there, doing the job but not doing anything silly as there is a lot on the line in these last two rounds.” His best lap set in the final minute of the session just edged out Byrne, who said: “To be honest I really needed to ride in the morning as I had a brand new bike and it needed to go around the track so we just did a few laps in the wet because of that. The afternoon was really, really good. We have a couple of things that we need to work on but I am really happy.” Brookes showed his all-round skills setting the third best time this afternoon, ahead of fellow Title Fighter James Ellison aboard the Milwaukee Yamaha who had briefly led the afternoon session. Jakub Smrz riding the Padgetts Honda and Matteo Baiocco on the Moto Rapido Ducati rounded off the top six, ahead of Michael Rutter on the Bathams Honda and Peter Hickman riding the Lloyds British GBmoto Honda. — Milwaukee Yamaha Report The Milwaukee Yamaha team returned to action at Silverstone today for the penultimate round of the MCE Insurance British Superbike Championship with James Ellison and Tommy Bridewell ending the opening free practice sessions in fourth and thirteenth respectively. The opening morning session took place in wet conditions with Ellison proving his pace by running second fastest with Bridewell completing the top ten. However the conditions improved for the afternoon and Ellison fired in the fourth fastest time and is confident that some changes in the morning will put him in an even stronger position for qualifying. Bridewell set the thirteenth fastest time as he prepares for his second weekend with the Milwaukee Yamaha team and is ready to build on the opening two sessions. Ellison said: “It has been a good start to the weekend and we are not far off after today. We have been losing a bit of time in the first sector, but we have a bit of a plan for that as we know we have a good pace here at the MotoGP support race so we have been able to try a few things. We have been working on the steering because that in the first sector will be where we can make up some more time and I have been happy on the SC2 rear tyre. We have some information from when we were here before so we have been able to go a bit in between in terms of direction, but we have ended today fairly happy and on track for where we need to be tomorrow.” Bridewell said: “Today was difficult with the conditions and I am a bit far away from where I feel comfortable, but we have had a good talk through it in the garage and we have a plan for tomorrow to make some changes. At the start of the session this afternoon I felt better but as the conditions improved I just struggled to match the pace we needed to achieve, but generally it is ok and we shouldn’t be here for very long!” — Josh Waters to round out BSB season with Kawasaki — By Trevor Hedge After being ousted from the Milwaukee Yamaha squad Mildura born rider Joshua Waters put in an impressive showing with BMW at the Le Mans 24 Hour and has now been picked up by the Halsall Racing Kawasaki squad for the remainder of the 2013 BSB Season. The seat at Halsall had been vacated when Tommy Bridewell left the squad to take up Waters’ position in the Milwaukee Yamaha squad. Thus the pair have effectively now swapped teams. The two-time Australian Superbike Champion had experienced his home grown success onboard a Suzuki GSX-R1000, and never adapted to the vastly different feeling YZF-R1 fielded by the Milwaukee Yamaha squad. Fingers crossed Waters finds the Kawasaki much more to his liking. The 2013 MCE Insurance British Superbike Championship season continues next weekend at Silverstone, before moving on to the series triple-header finale at Brands Hatch on October 20. — Current British Superbike Standings 1 Shane Byrne Rapid Solicitors Kawasaki 559 2 Alex Lowes Samsung Honda 558 3 James Ellison Milwaukee Yamaha 538 4 Josh Brookes Tyco Suzuki 535 5 Ryuichi Kiyonari Samsung Honda 522 6 James Westmoreland Buildbase BMW 519 7 Jon Kirkham Buildbase BMW 174 8 PJ Jacobsen Tyco Suzuki 144 9 Tommy Bridewell Milwaukee Yamaha 142 10 Chris Walker Quattro Plant Kawasaki 133
