RYUICHI Kiyonari smashed the lap record at Croft during free practice for tomorrow's sixth round of the Bennetts British Superbike Championship.

The HM Plant Honda rider quickly learned the demanding Darlington-area circuit, putting in a best lap time of one minute 21.034 seconds, a quarter of a second inside the record.

Kiyonari was marginally quicker than team-mate Michael Rutter, who leads the championship series going into the Croft round.

Rutter had set the pace for much of the two practice sessions before a crash slowed his progress.

Rutter took a tumble at the hairpin, escaping injury, and though he was soon back out on track he could not regain the advantage from his Japanese team-mate.

Karl Harris, also riding a Honda Fireblade, was third fastest ahead of Australian Dean Thomas on board a Hawk Kawasaki.

Spaniard Gregorio Lavilla, currently second in the rankings and 46 points down on Rutter, was fifth best on the Airwaves Ducati.

"It will be a relief not to have to learn the track from scratch this weekend," said Lavilla, referring to a recent test session at the circuit.

"At some of the rounds so far I have had to spend time learning the track first and this has left the team less time to start fine-tuning the bike in preparation for the race.

"Although conditions will be different, hopefully we will be able to use some of the information gained at the test to work immediately on finding the best settings for the race and turn this into a good result."

Airwaves team manager, Colin Wright, confirmed the upbeat mood among the team.

"We have put together an impressive string of results, including the team's first ever one-two at Mondello Park, and this can't help but give us confidence here," he said.

"We know we won't have things all our own way this weekend but we are keen to build on the recent experience of the circuit that Gregorio and (team-mate) Leon Haslam gained."

Defending champion John Reynolds made a solid return to action yesterday, running seventh on the Rizla Suzuki.

Reynolds missed the previous two rounds to speed up the healing process on his right leg, which was broken in five places in a pre-season testing crash.

He had started the championship after a pre-season operation but was forced to rest on the advice of doctors.

"I am satisfied with my first day back on the bike and I'll go to bed and sleep well tonight knowing I can run with anyone around Croft," Reynolds said.

"We are well within reach of the front row and we have a few things to try tomorrow that I am confident will reduce our lap times.

"We made a change to the head angle on my Rizla Suzuki towards the end of the second session and it now feels incredibly planted and pin sharp. Tomorrow we will look at the rear suspension, lift my right footpeg for more ground clearance and try a couple of tyre combinations. It's good to be back racing!"

Meanwhile, Middlesbrough's Paul Veazey is looking for success in the National Superstock Cup.

He has yet to get himself into the top three but it has not been for the want of trying.

At the April meeting at Thruxton Veazey qualified on pole and was leading with just seconds to go before falling off on the last lap. At Oulton Park in his last meeting he came fourth.

"I think I am the unluckiest rider not to have finished on the podium," he said. "At Thruxton I set the fastest lap time by a second so I know I'm capable of being out in front. I'm sure once the first win comes others will follow - there's nothing like finishing on the podium to boost confidence and to do it in front of my home crowd would be fantastic."

Published: 04/06/2005