The ever impressive Eugene McManus Jnr claimed a front row spot for tomorrow's Hel Performance Motostar British Championship race with another stunning ride at Oulton Park.
In Saturday's FP1 Eugene completed 8 laps, clocking up a best lap of 1:48.785 on the 2.69 mile International circuit. FP1 was dominated by the City Lifting duo of Tom Booth Amos and Jake Archer, who were some 2.5 seconds quicker than Eugene riding RS Racing ktm's.
In FP2 Eugene showed steady progress to improve on the morning session with a quicker lap of 1:47.060 just 1.4 seconds behind leader Booth Amos.
Eugene's mechanic Michael King;
"We were happy with FP1 and FP2, I'm really impressed with the way Eugene is maturing as a rider, he is giving me more technical feedback which is great. We had a minor break issue which will be sorted for the morning, we will do our best to be up there with the front two in qualifying."
On Sunday morning Eugene made a huge step and took the honours in FP3 setting a 1:46.238 lap time with Tom Booth Amos just 0.183 behind. Booth Amos, Jake Archer and McManus were all expected to be amongst the afternoon's front runners in Qualifying.
Qualifying began at 15.00pm with Eugene getting away alongside the City Lifting riders, clearly a tactic that worked as Eugene consistently produced the sort of lap times that almost guaranteed him a front row start. Booth Amos set a stunning time of 1:44.690 in his final lap to clinch pole, 0.442 ahead of the delighted McManus Jnr;
"I'm really excited to be on the front row again, I need a good start and to get away with Tom (Booth Amos) hopefully I will be there at the end"
Eugene Snr;
"We are looking for consistency, it's easy to get carried away but Eugene is improving
and keen to succeed, we need to take it one step at a time, another front row start is a real bonus and hopefully tomorrow's race will be enjoyable and free of incident"
You can see the race live on Europsort at 14.55pm!!
