British Superbike Championship 2014 – Round Two – Oulton Park
Race one:
- Shane Byrne (Rapid Solicitors Kawasaki)
- Josh Brookes (Milwaukee Yamaha) +0.105s
- James Ellison (Lloyds British GBmoto Racing Kawasaki) +6.183s
- Tommy Bridewell (Milwaukee Yamaha) +8.781s
- Stuart Easton (Rapid Solicitors Kawasaki) +13.285s
- Dan Linfoot (Quattro Plant Kawasaki) +19.139s
Race two:
- Josh Brookes (Milwaukee Yamaha)
- Shane Byrne (Rapid Solicitors Kawasaki) +0.118s
- James Ellison (Lloyds British GBmoto Racing Kawasaki) +4.892s
- Stuart Easton (Rapid Solicitors Kawasaki) +11.841s
- Tommy Bridewell (Milwaukee Yamaha) +14.145s
- James Westmoreland (Buildbase BMW Motorrad) +20.894s
Championship standings:
- Shane Byrne (Rapid Solicitors Kawasaki) 95
- Josh Brookes (Milwaukee Yamaha) 65
- James Ellison (Lloyds British GBmoto Racing Kawasaki) 64
- Stuart Easton (Rapid Solicitors Kawasaki) 44
- Tommy Bridewell (Milwaukee Yamaha) 40
- Chris Walker (Lloyds British GBmoto Racing Kawasaki) 39
Milwaukee Yamaha’s Josh Brookes broke triple champion Shane ‘Shakey’ Byrne’s run of winning form by claiming the victory in the second round of the MCE Insurance British Superbike Championship at Oulton Park.
The two riders had been inseparable throughout the weekend at the Cheshire circuit with Byrne adding to his winning tally in the opening race aboard his Rapid Solicitors Kawasaki, though under sustained pressure from Brookes in the closing stages.
Byrne made the break with Brookes ever close on the Mikwaukee Yamaha and then James Ellison aboard the Lloyds British GBmoto Kawasaki, before the Aussie re-established himself in second place, bettering the lap record set in 2006 to cross the line only 0.105s adrift of Byrne.
Byrne said: “Everybody always asks if you have a plan before the start of a race, but no matter what you formulate in your head these guys can always run a mock with that! My plan was to get a good start, dig in and try and get a gap and if I could then perfect, although I wasn’t expecting that to happen. I would have been happy to settle for second or third for a bit and then the Safety Car came out and when we got started again I wanted to try and get a gap, which I did. Then with four or five laps to go my board said +1.4 and then it came down and in big chunks and I thought ‘here comes Josh then!’ I didn’t want to push more and ride into a mistake but I didn’t want to let off either and give Josh any more of an incentive or dangle a carrot, so I stayed consistent and fortunately it was just enough so I am happy.”
Brookes had the pole start for the second race and he made the perfect get-away though Byrne was in close contention and on the second lap they swapped places twice in one corner, but Brookes maintained his position at the front. The Australian was coming under fire from the former champion but he held off Byrne twice as he made moves for the lead.
It was a first victory for Brookes by only 0.118s since joining the Milwaukee Yamaha team, and he said: “I don’t know when I last led a race from start to finish. Shakey came past early on and I had to fight back quickly as I didn’t want to let him go. I made a fairly daring move to get him back and then twice at Island Bends he came back at me, but I thought you will have to do better than that!”
Brookes: “I didn’t get a great start as I bunny-hopped a bit off the line which was a little bit uncalculated on my behalf. It didn’t matter too much with the safety car, but that always breaks my rhythm even though it was on the first lap. When we did get going I thought I had a really good run onto the straight on Shakey and then next thing I knew James was there and I couldn’t turn into the corner. I wasn’t too bothered at that point, but then I saw Shakey starting to get away and I thought I needed to go with him. At that point I wasn’t too comfortable to push and I couldn’t match the times from earlier in the weekend but then as the race went on I was more confident and able to do the better times. The only thing that was changing was the fuel load; unfortunately it wasn’t enough to catch Shakey so we need to change a few things to help at the start of the race, so we are in a position to have a better finish.”
Byrne settled for second but holds his lead in the overall standings ahead of the next round at Snetterton, he added: “That was a great race; the first one was about me, the second about Josh, but I can’t complain with a first and a second here.”
Ellison had continued his consistent run, having claimed third place finishes in each of the four races so far, he said: “I was quite happy with the podium to be honest as I hadn’t been on track with the others during the practice sessions so I wasn’t sure where they would be stronger. The plan was to sit down in with them if I didn’t get the holeshot and then try and make a pass at the end, but it didn’t pan out like that. The Safety Car helped me out a bit to be honest and I got a bit of a jump and held onto Shakey for as long as I could. I felt I was fast into Hizzys and I just pushed a little bit too hard into there and just ran onto the grass and that was it unfortunately. I didn’t have enough left in me as I have been struggling this weekend with top end strength from the injury last week. It is a little bit but it has physically taking it out of me, so although I am happy with a podium I was disappointed that we couldn’t take it to them at the end of the race.”
Josh Waters scored a pair of 13th places at Oulton Park and currently ranks 18th in the Superbike Points.
Mitchell Carr missed out on making a debut at the Cheshire circuit after crashing in Saturday’s practice session. The Australian rider broke his left hand, leaving the team’s Superstock 1000 rider Shaun Winfield to step up to make his debut on the number 35 ZX-10R.
British Supersport
Billy McConnell claimed a stunning Motorpoint British Supersport Championship double win after an epic race long battle with Alastair Seeley and team-mate Graeme Gowland at Oulton Park this afternoon.
Seeley had got the initial jump off the line to head the pack into Old Hall for the first time with Gowland in second and Glenn Irwin in third, but a mistake from the Mar-Train Yamaha rider at Hizzys dropped him to third but ready to fight back.
Gowland held the lead until Irwin made a move down the inside at Lodge for the second time to put the Gearlink Kawasaki at the front of the field, however it lasted for just a lap as Gowland pushed the Smiths Racing Triumph back ahead with McConnell moving second
McConnell then swapped paint with his team-mate to hit the front of the pack for the first time before Seeley made a move to return to the front. A frantic race continued with the pair swapping positions with every lap and as it came to the final lap Seeley led the trio across the line. McConnell was pushing hard but it wasn’t until Lodge that the Smiths Racing Triumph made a decisive mood down the inside at Lodge that gave him the edge.
McConnell said: “When you are battling bar to bar like that it is pretty special to take the victory. Alastair is a clean racer and always comes in with smiles even when you have beaten him. I had an awesome package thanks to the team and these are the result that we wanted.”
Gowland held third whilst Luke Stapleford was able to get the better of Irwin over the closing laps to score a fourth place for the Profile Racing Triumph team.
Motorpoint British Supersport Championship, Oulton Park, Feature race result:
- Billy McConnell (Smiths Racing Triumph)
- Alastair Seeley (Mar-Train Yamaha) +0.286s
- Graeme Gowland (Smiths Racing Triumph) +0.427s
- Luke Stapleford (Profile Racing Triumph) +9.017s
- Glenn Irwin (Gearlink Kawasaki) +15.592
Motorpoint British Supersport Championship standings after Oulton Park:
- Billy McConnell (Smiths Racing Triumph) 76
- Alastair Seeley (Mar-Train Yamaha) 63
- Graeme Gowland (Smiths Racing Triumph) 61
- Luke Stapleford (Profile Racing Triumph) 52
- Glenn Irwin (Gearlink Kawasaki) 50
Pirelli National Superstock 1000 Championship race
Danny Buchan made it two wins out of two with a lap record breaking runaway victory aboard the Tsingtao WK Kawasaki as he headed off Honda’s Jason O’Halloran by a little over five seconds in a race red-flagged on the penultimate lap when Victor Cox crashed heavily out of fifth place at Island Bend. CT scans later showed not broken bones for Cox. Dave Johnson took third ahead of Adam Jenkinson and Glenn Richards.
Dave Johnson. “This weekend has been awesome, we had a great set up and the guys have been putting in a tremendous effort in the last few weeks leading up to this round. I had a few issues with the brakes towards the end of the race, but this is a small problem we can easily resolve. I am now going to focus on the roads before Snetterton, but I cannot wait for the next Superstock round, where once again, I hope to be pushing at the front.”
Pirelli National Superstock 600 Championship race
Andy Reid powered his FFX Yamaha to an easy maiden race victory in this series, taking the lead on the second lap from Andrew Irwin and then charging into the distance, at one point opening up an eight seconds advantage ahead of Be Wiser Kawasaki’s Joe Collier. Reid said: “The bike was working so well, it was awesome especially as this was the first time I had race this circuit on a 600 – I can’t believe it.” Reid moved into second place in the title stakes, just three points down on James Lodge who finished the race in third place, adrift of Joe Collier. Benjamin Currie took fifth place while fellow Australian Levi Day finished 13th. James Mutton had a trying weekend after splitting with his team but solidered on to finish 27th.
Motul British Motostar Championship race
Jordan Weaving made the decisive move with a couple of laps remaining to put his Burkert KTM into the lead, taking the victory that moves him to the top of the Moto3 standings while second placed Edward Rendell on the Banks Honda heads the 125GP standings. Jayson Uribe and Chris Taylor completed the Moto3 podium finishers while Taz Taylor and James Flitcroft were the other two 125GP podium finishers.
TriStar R&G Triple Challenge races
Freddy Pett continued his consistent run with a third place and then a victory to extend his lead in the title stakes to 18 points over Phil Atkinson. Tom Carne came out top of an opening race thriller as he won the dash to the line by just 0.027secs from Atkinson with Pett, who had vainly tried to grab the lead with an audacious move around the outside at Lodge third, though only a quarter of a second down. Pett made amends next time out taking the victory from Sam Cox with Atkinson third.
Milwaukee Yamaha Report
The Milwaukee Yamaha team celebrated their first victory of the 2014 MCE Insurance British Superbike Championship season at Oulton Park this afternoon as Josh Brookes claimed his first win for the team to follow up his second place in the opening race.
In the opening race of the day Brookes got off to a flying start to shadow championship leader Shane Byrne and despite his best efforts was forced to settle for second. The Australian’s blistering pace during the race broke the existing lap record set in 2006 and put Brookes on pole position for the second race. Tommy Bridewell had a hard-fought race to charge up the order to claim fourth position as he continued to make up ground on his rivals.
Race two was a different story as Brookes led the race from the start and despite a move from Byrne early in the proceedings he instantly attacked back to reclaim the position. Brookes held the advantage despite the growing pressure to claim his first win for Milwaukee Yamaha as he moved second in the overall standings. Bridewell had been pushing forward and was battling for fourth position when he got caught in traffic and had to settle for fifth, elevating himself to fifth in the overall standings.
Brookes said: “I am delighted with how we have finished today with the win. In the first race I didn’t get a great start and then we had the safety car and that always breaks my rhythm even though it was on the first lap. When we did get going I thought I had a really good run onto the straight on Shakey and then next thing I knew James was there and I couldn’t turn into the corner. I wasn’t too bothered at that point, but then I saw Shakey starting to get away and I thought I needed to go with him. At that point I wasn’t too comfortable to push and I couldn’t match the times from earlier in the weekend but then as the race went on I was more confident; unfortunately it wasn’t enough to catch Shakey but we changed that in race two.
“It is a great feeling to win and what we all push so hard to achieve, so to get it is quite rewarding but it was so difficult. There is always a dog fight in BSB to get to the result so I tried not to make mistakes and set my pace quite strong and consistent. In the early laps Shane got passed me and I thought I can’t let him get into that robotic stage where he is in the zone so I pulled a really cool, aggressive move to get back ahead. I had some really big slides and moments at the end of the race and I thought come on let’s just keep it all together and bring it home so I was really pleased to finally see that chequered flag waving.”
Bridewell said: “I felt I rode well today and had two good races although we were still a bit away from where we need to be to push for the podiums. In race one I hung in there and a fourth place was much better but in race two I was disappointed as I got stuck in traffic. I knew I had the gap behind me and that I was stronger than Stuart (Easton) at certain points of the circuit but the backmarkers held me up and it cost me the position. I know we still have more to do at Snetterton because we want to be fighting for wins but I rode as hard as I could today to get these results, especially after coming back from the missed time on Saturday. I am happy enough but want to be fighting for podiums when it comes to Snetterton.”
Team owner Shaun Muir concluded: “I am delighted with this weekend and Josh’s win today was his just rewards for the hard work he has put in since joining the Milwaukee Yamaha team. This has traditionally been a good track for us and although the first race didn’t quite go to plan with the safety car and he had to settle for second to Shakey, he definitely made up for it in race two with that performance. In the second race he soaked up a huge amount of pressure from Shakey which was fantastic. Tommy this weekend has been brilliant too, he didn’t get the results he was expecting at Brands Hatch but he picked himself up and was back out fighting. He lost some time, but proved that he is ready to push at the front.”
