August 22, 2008 - Jon Pearson

A mid-season rule change sees the British Superbike organisers MCRCB adopt a new format for qualifying at this weekend's Cadwell Park meeting ... Scroll down for the full story

The British Superbike class will adopt a new, Formula One-style qualifying session at this weekend's meeting.

The Swan Combi 50 (sounds like a caravan doesn't it?) Role for Pole on Sunday afternoon will have three separate sessions as follows:

Q1 will be 25 minutes long and feature all riders attempting to set times to secure a slot in Q2. Riders outside the top 20 will form the back rows of the grid based on their qualifying times.

Q2 will be 15 minutes long and feature the top 20 riders from Q1. Again riders will be attempting to set a time good enough to secure a slot in the final session, Q3. Riders outside the top 10 will form the next forward rows of the grid ahead of those already formed from Q1.

Q3 will be 10 minutes long and feature the top ten riders shooting out for the first two and a half rows on the grid.

The system used to some success in Formula One is certainly more exciting to watch but can have a tendency to favour the top teams who have more spare bikes to rely on (lower budget teams can lose out if a rider crashes in Q1). It also means top riders can have a slightly easier time of it, only really needing to try their hardest, and take higher risks at the end of the qualifying hour.

It should be interesting to watch however. Tickets are still available for the event and the live broadcast is on Eurosport 2, bank holiday Monday.