Highs and Lows of Oulton Park


It was a weekend of two halves for Team Green at the latest round of the British Superbike Championship, which took place at the Cheshire based Oulton Park Circuit this past weekend. The weather was as mixed as our fortune, yet there were still a lot of positives to take away as we head into a six week break from racing.

The Superbike class, which had seen the JG Speedfit Kawasaki team dominate with 100% of victories in the first two rounds, continued in the same vein with Leon Haslam storming to a dominant race one victory ahead of title rival, Shakey Byrne. However, disaster struck in race two when Haslam struck the back of James Ellison whilst sitting in a promising third position with five laps to go. Ellison, whose bike had an engine problem, had no way of safely removing himself from the racing line and Haslam had no choice but to hit the back of Ellison's Yamaha. The resulting crash was huge, and despairingly destroyed the Ninja ZX-10RR. Thankfully, Haslam was uninjured in the crash and now has some time to rest before the next round.

Team mate Luke Mossey who claimed his first and second ever BSB race victories at the previous round had a steady performance this weekend ending with a third and fifth place finishes. This was enough however to retain his second place in the title fight behind Haslam, who despite his crash remains at the top of the table.

The Superstock race was unfortunately marred by bad weather, which eventually caused the demise of Championship leader, Danny Buchan. After a dry race start, in which Buchan had a healthy lead, the red flags were shown due to rain starting to fall. After a quick tyre change and restart, Buchan's bike developed a mechanical issue forcing him to retire. This however did pave the way for rookie Superstock 1000 rider, Mason Law to claim his first race win of the season in dramatic style.

The Supersport again proved to be one of the most competitive, with race wins being some of the hardest to achieve across the BSB Championship. Gearlink Kawasaki duo Ben Currie and Andrew Irwin were on the pace all weekend, but couldn't quite convert this pace into race wins. Irwin rode a fantastic Sprint race on Sunday taking a well earned second position, with team mate Currie ending 6th. However the Feature Race on Monday didn't end so well for Irwin, as a developing mechanical issue throughout the race eventually saw the Northern Irishman drop to 11th, with Currie moving one placer higher than on Sunday, finishing 5th. Both riders remain in the top four in the title race, so all is to play for.

Senior Racing Co-ordinator for Kawasaki Motors UK, Ross Burridge said: “First and foremost I am just happy to see Leon get up and walk away from what was a terrifying crash. Bikes can be fixed, but injuries at this stage of the season aren't good. However, we still come away from our worst race weekend of the year occupying the top two spots of the Championship, so all is not lost! I would also like to congratulate Mason Law on his maiden win, thoroughly deserved.”

There is now a break from the British Superbike Championship, as the JG Speedfit Kawasaki team turn their heads towards the Northwest 200 and Isle of Man TT races.

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