Ben Spies made it six pole positions in a row as he topped the superpole qualifying session for the FIM Superbike round in South Africa.

The Yamaha World Superbike team rider has already started the first five rounds of the championship this season from pole position.

And he will make it six in a row at Kyalami tomorrow as he bids to reduce the 54-point lead of Noriyuki Haga in the championship standings.

Spies' prolific form in qualifying has seen him equal the record set in 1991 by fellow Texan Doug Polen.

In an exciting Kyalami superpole session the advantage went to Spies in the closing seconds as he claimed first on the grid ahead of Haga's Ducati Xerox team-mate Michel Fabrizio.

Spies and Fabrizio had shared race wins last time out at Monza in Italy and the battle continued during qualifying at Kyalami.

When it came down to it Spies held sway by one thousandth of a second, the smallest ever margin recorded in a superpole session.

Max Biaggi showed a welcome return to form as he left it late to grab third on the gird for Aprilia Racing and he also set the top speed of the day on the RSV4 with a best of 251.8kmh.

Haga, who had almost been eliminated earlier in qualifying but just got through the second knockout phase, was able to set the fourth best time in superpole.

Row two will see Hannspree Ten Kate Honda's Jonathan Rea along with Jakub Smrz on the Guandalini Ducati.

They will be joined on the second row by Rea's team-mate Carlos Checa and Spies' team-mate Tom Sykes.