All class Sunday round up from Oulton Park BSB

2022 British Superbike Championship
Round Two – Oulton Park

Bennetts British Superbike Qualifying

Kyle Ryde sealed a sensational pole position in the SUPERPICKS Qualifying session ahead of the opening Bennetts British Superbike Championship race at Oulton Park on Sunday afternoon, snatching the position from Josh Brookes on his final lap.

A rain shower just ahead of Q1 made for a challenging start to the session with both Brookes and Luke Mossey, who eventually ended on the front row after Q2, having to make their way through the opening stage of Qualifying.

The conditions continued to change and during Q2 several riders had taken their turn at the top with Danny Kent, Tom Sykes, Christian Iddon, Ryan Vickers, Brookes and Bradley Ray all moving up the order.

As the grid decider approached the final stages, Ray had surged to the top with three minutes remaining on the clock, but Vickers then moved ahead from his second place on the FHO Racing BMW with Attis Sports.

Brookes and Sykes were holding the leading two positions with just a minute to go until the chequered flag, but then a last lap flier from Ryde put him ahead of Brookes by 0.707s with Mossey moving back onto the front row.

Rory Skinner, Peter Hickman and Vickers all had a last lap improvement to complete row two, ahead of Ray, and then brothers Andrew and Glenn Irwin form row three.

Danny Buchan completed the top ten just ahead of Sykes and Leon Haslam ahead of the opening race on Sunday afternoon. For what happened in that bout, read on!

Bennetts British Superbike Combined Qualifying

Bennetts British Superbike Race One

Bradley Ray became the second different race winner of the Bennetts British Superbike Championship season, claiming his first victory in four years in the opening race at Oulton Park.

As the Milwaukee Spring Grand Slam got underway and the riders bid to scoop an extra prize across the Oulton Park and Donington Park rounds, Ray delivered the first blow to his rivals with an impressive performance in the opening race of the weekend.

His Rich Energy OMG Racing Yamaha teammate got the best launch off the line at the start of the race, hitting the front of the pack from Rory Skinner and Josh Brookes, before the young Scot moved ahead to fire the FS-3 Racing Kawasaki into the lead with a move on the opening lap at Lodge.

Ray had been holding third place, but a decisive move on lap two at Old Hall put him at the front of the pack with Skinner, Ryde and Brookes leading the chasing pack.

Ray was determined to make a break and a run of consistent laps gave him the advantage over his rivals as he bridged a gap, but behind the battle for the podium positions was intensifying.

Skinner was holding off Ryde and Brookes, but Peter Hickman was also in the mix. However as the laps counted down, Tommy Bridewell had also made a bid for the top five and he had carved his way through the pack from 16th on the grid to tag onto the group.

A red flag after David Johnson crashed the Rich Energy OMG Racing Yamaha though ended the battle early as Skinner and Ryde celebrated adding to their podium tally this season.

Brookes secured his best result of the season so far in fourth place for the MCE Ducati team ahead of Hickman and Bridewell, who salvaged a strong sixth place.

Christian Iddon was the leading Buildbase Suzuki in seventh place, getting the better of Jason O’Halloran on the lone McAMS Yamaha just before the red flag.

Lee Jackson and Danny Buchan completed the top ten ahead of tomorrow’s two races, whilst Glenn Irwin still holds the championship lead for Honda Racing UK despite his 11th place finish.

Bradley Ray – P1

“It is nice to get the first win of the season for Rich Energy OMG Racing Yamaha as the boys have been grafting really hard, so this win is for them. For the race I knew I had a good pace, so knew I needed to get a good start, get in front and put the hammer down. When I got into the front, I knew that was my opportunity to try and pull the gap and luckily enough I did. I think tomorrow will be a bit more difficult, but after four years of not winning race, it feels great to get the monkey off my back. I am over the moon with the result today and so happy to be back on the top step again.”

Josh Brookes – P4

“We made a good step forward in FP3 and the lap times were both a lot quicker and more consistent meaning I was closer to where I need to be. I’m still a few tenths down on being able to fight for the win and we need to get dialled in earlier in the weekend as you can’t afford to be way back in the pack on the opening day. But we made good improvements and I was getting stronger and getting myself into a position to attack with a podium on the cards, but the red flag ended the race early. Fourth is a lot more like it so we’ll look to improve again tomorrow and get on the podium.”

Glenn Irwin – P11

“I was happy enough with Qualifying, we made the wrong tyre choice at the beginning of the session and made a quick decision on track to come in and make a change, so we got one lap and we had to make it count. We probably could have made more of it, but we couldn’t afford to have an abandoned lap or an over-shoot, so ninth was OK as some of our rivals were further back. The race was a bit disappointing, we’ve been struggling all weekend with some areas and the race highlighted this, so we have some work to do this evening ready for tomorrow’s two races.”

Tom Sykes – P15

“We’re running with a few limitations at the moment with the main issue being not being able to get on the gas like we need to. The bike’s a bit unstable and if you can’t use the gas when and how you need to, it means you lose ground each lap and in the dry that equates to quite a lot of time. I was strong in the wet and felt comfortable on the bike and felt unlucky not to be higher up the grid, but I didn’t make the greatest of starts and it’s hard to claw the gap back. Some of the boys are a bit special round here but the team are working hard, and we’ll aim to be a lot stronger tomorrow.”

Bennetts British Superbike Race One Results

Bennetts British Superbike Championship Championship Standings

Quattro Group British Supersport Race One

Mar-Train Racing’s Jack Kennedy was back on the top step of the podium at Oulton Park after blitzing the sprint race by more than four seconds.

Starting from pole, Kennedy led from the start as he delivered another of his Supersport masterclasses to win by 4.219s.

Behind, Appleyard Macadam’s Bradley Perie enjoyed a battle with Ashcourt Racing’s Lee Johnston. Despite dropping to third on lap seven, Perie was able to get the better of his rival on lap 10 to take second, some 0l687secs ahead of Johnston.

Perie’s team-mate, Harry Truelove, crossed the line in fourth place, just ahead of returning former champ Luke Stapleford on the Gearlink Kawasaki.

In GP2, Jack Scott took the class win ahead of Cameron Fraser with Harvey Claridge third.

Kiwi Damon Rees was the 16th Supersport machine home just ahead of road race star Michael Dunlop.

Quattro Group British Supersport Race One

Quattro Group British Supersport Championship Standings

Quattro Group British GP2 Championship Standings

Pirelli National Superstock Qualifying

Billy McConnell’s Oulton Park domination continued as he stormed to pole ahead of tomorrow’s race, edging out David Allingham by more than half a second with a hot lap of 1m:35.847s.

Charlie Nesbitt, who was quick during Saturday’s practice, held on to steal the final front row spot, while Alex Olsen heads row two, followed by Joe Francis.

Brayden Elliott will start from eighth on the grid while countryman Levi Day qualified tenth.

Pirelli National Superstock Qualifying Results

Pirelli National Junior Superstock Championship

Max Cook continued to dominate at Oulton Park as he stole pole ahead of tomorrow’s race, with a best lap of 1m:39.894s beating Louis Valleley by 0.720s.

Aaron Silvester ended the day third, ahead of Zak Fuller as Sam Laffins banked the fifth quickest time.

Young Aussie Seth Crump was tenth on the time-sheets while countryman Jacob Hatch was P16.

Pirelli National Junior Superstock Qualifying

Honda British Talent Cup Race One

Johnny Garness (MLav VisionTrack Academy) just beat Kiyano Veijer (Microlise Cresswell Racing) to the top step in Race 1 at Oulton Park, with the battle going right down to the wire and decided by mere hundredths. Carter Brown (MLav VisionTrack Academy) completed the podium a few tenths back, with a late race of attrition for some on Sunday seeing key names crash out including former points leader Harrison Crosby (Banks Racing).

Off the line Veijer took the holeshot from Crosby, but the number 15 didn’t take long to hit the front. Brown was tucked in behind, with Garness in fourth on Lap 1. On Lap 2 the top two had a small gap too, but it didn’t last long and soon enough the duels and squabbles had become a group.

A nine rider lead freight train formed as the fight for victory started to heat up. Rhys Stephenson (Rocket Racing) was in the hunt but slight contact with Brown at the bottom of the hill saw the number 23 forced to run on, therefore losing time and dropping to the back of the group.

The lead was chopping and changing heading into the closing exchanges and after regrouping and reeling in the leaders, Stephenson then crashed at Turn 4 on the penultimate lap after running onto the grass. Eight riders were then left searching for victory, and it all came down to the last lap.

Veijer led the freight train from Garness and Julian Correa (Microlise Cresswell Racing), and at the bottom of the hill, the American was in hot and wide but had the inside line for the switchback. However, Garness then had the inside line for the right-hander and at that stage it looked like Veijer had enough of a gap for victory – but that didn’t turn out to be the case. Garness strung a sensational final sector together and a lunge up the inside at the final corner saw the number 57 edge ahead.

Garness and Veijer were side by side on the run to the line and by the slimmest of margins, the MLav VisionTrack rider held on for victory. Brown just snuck into third as Correa then suffered late heartbreak after he highsided at the final corner, but thankfully he was ok. Crosby, meanwhile, also felt that bad luck as the number 15 went down after running off to avoid the American.

Ultimately then, Harley McCabe (MLav VisionTrack Academy) came home fourth ahead of Harrison Dessoy (Microlise Cresswell Racing/Eastern Garage Racing) in the lead group. Lucas Brown (SP125/Amphibian Scaffolding) took a lonely P6, as Matthew Ruisbroek (Microlise Cresswell Racing), Ryan Hitchcock (City Lifting by RS Racing), Harrison Mackay (Wilson Racing/Super Soco) and Alexander Rowan (Mortimer Racing/Victoria House Academy) rounded out the top 10.

Honda British Talent Cup Race One Results

Honda British Talent Cup Championship Standings

Molson Group British Sidecar Race One

Molson Group British Sidecar Championship Standings