Scene set for BSB Showdown with only two points separating Josh Brookes and Shane Byrne
The MCE Insurance British Superbike Championship intensified at Oulton Park between Josh Brookes and Shane ‘Shakey’ Byrne with the pair sharing the wins at the triple-header. The Australian leads the standings by just two points into the crucial Showdown opener at Assen (18/19/20 September).
In the second race of the triple-header weekend Brookes and Byrne again went head-to-head and it looked set to go down to the wire between the pair of them until the defending champion was sidelined by a technical problem on the penultimate lap. Brookes claimed the vital five podium points for the win ahead of MCE BSB rookie Danny Buchan who scored his best ever finish in second place.
A spectacular crash for Tommy Bridewell elevated Dan Linfoot to third for Honda Racing as he edged closer to his Showdown position at the expense of Stuart Easton who withdrew from the races due to his injury.
In the final race of the weekend Brookes made the perfect start but again Byrne was piling on the pressure. The scrap at the front was briefly paused when the Nissan GT-R Safety Car was deployed after Shaun Winfield crashed out.
When the race resumed Byrne saw his chance and made a lunge to pass Brookes, but it cost him as he ran wide and dramatically lost ground dropping him back down the field. A determined string of laps put him back into second ahead of Bridewell.
The final laps again came down to a battle of supremacy between Brookes and Byrne. The PBM Kawasaki rider was locked on his target, making a move at Shell Oils corner and then defending hard to hold off his Milwaukee Yamaha rival on the final lap.
Bridewell scored an impressive third place despite being battered from his earlier crash ahead of Buchan and Ellison, who had confirmed his place in the Showdown after the opening race for JG Speedfit Kawasaki.
Bridewell and his Tyco BMW team-mate Michael Laverty confirmed their places inside the top six with Linfoot finishing sixth in the final race to become the last rider to make the cut for the Showdown.
Josh Brookes (Milwaukee Yamaha) – “I felt quite comfortable in the race today but I was struggling at the end with grip. It is difficult to accept to lose it in the final race. I had put my head down and did everything I could and we were running a good pace. I rode as hard as I could but Shakey could do more.
“The Showdown feels real now, especially after a weekend like this one with the highs and lows of the good luck and bad luck we have had at Oulton Park. When we are all lined up in the Showdown I will be giving it everything to try and win which is always my approach and plan and that will continue until the end of the year. I have high hopes for Assen now, but anything can happen.”
Shane Byrne (PBM Kawasaki) – “I was watching Josh and wanted to make a move after the Safety car, but Josh left it quite late to go and I had a good run on him so I went for a lunge on him. I can’t tell you what I thought as I went straight on and unfortunately everyone was buzzing passed me! I got my head down and put some harsh moves on the others as I knew I had no time to waste to get back to Josh. It was now or never so I went for the move and led the rest of the lap and fortunately held him off.
“We will regroup again after this weekend so we are ready for the Showdown at Assen. We need to do everything we can do be in the position to go out and attack in the last three rounds as you can’t do anything else now. The circuits coming up should be good for the PBM Kawasaki so we need to make our weaknesses as small as possible and our strengths as big as possible.”
Danny Buchan – “I’m over the moon with my results this weekend. Everyone has worked really hard to help me to achieve these results this weekend and it’s been a tough year with some problems along the way.
“It’s a huge relief to have secured not one but two podiums, it’s such a fantastic feeling and to see all the hard work from everyone has paid off is just brilliant. We have all worked so hard to get to this point and the Be Wiser Kawasaki team have been perfect and I’ve been able to finally repay them for everything they have been doing for me.
“I must say a huge thank you to my family and all my personal sponsors who have continued to support me throughout the year and I just hope I am able to end the year on a high.”
Billy McConnell suffered vastly differing fortunes in the three races. The weekend started well for the Adelaide rider when he qualified in an excellent fifth place for Saturday’s race and he duly held onto that position for the opening few laps. However, just after slipping back a couple of places, he crashed out on the ninth lap at Old Hall Corner, luckily without injury.
It didn’t get much better in Sunday’s opening race for the reigning British Supersport champion when he was forced to retire on the fifth lap with a clutch problem. That just left the third and final 18-lap race of the weekend to claim a result, but coming through from 20th place on the grid was always going to be a tall order although he did manage to claim a point for 15th place.
Billy McConnell: “It looked like it was going to be a good weekend for us and after making a good breakthrough with the setting of the bike, qualifying went perfectly. Unfortunately, I got caught out with my braking marker in the first race and I got crossed up and crashed out. It gave the boys a lot of work to do and when I went out in race two, the clutch was slipping so I had to pull in. I was way back on the grid for the third race and trying to come from 20th in this depth of field is practically impossible but I got a point so that was something. We’ll regroup and go again at Assen.”
Josh Waters finished 15th in the second of the three races, but struggled in the final race to finish outside of the points in 19th. However, the double Australian Superbike Champion is remaining positive as the series heads to Assen, where he stood on the top-step of the podium in 2014.
Josh Waters – “I improved on my qualifying position in the first two races and got some points on the board. Sadly the last race wasn’t as good as we made some changes that didn’t pay off, but the team will go away and keep working on the bike between now and Assen. I’ve got good memories there, so hopefully we can find some more improvements to the set-up and have a good weekend.”
Race one (Saturday)
1: Shane Byrne (PBM Kawasaki)
2: James Ellison (JG Speedfit Kawasaki) +0.780s
3: Danny Buchan (Be Wiser Kawasaki) +1.784s
4: Josh Brookes (Milwaukee Yamaha) +4.421s
5: Dan Linfoot (Honda Racing) +10.605s
6: Luke Mossey (Quattro Plant Kawasaki) +10.820s
Race two
1: Josh Brookes (Milwaukee Yamaha)
2: Danny Buchan (Be Wiser Kawasaki) +8.519s
3: Dan Linfoot (Honda Racing) +12.194s
4: Luke Mossey (Quattro Plant Tec-Care Kawasaki) +14.508s
5: James Ellison (JG Speedfit Kawasaki) +14.589s
6: Peter Hickman (RAF Reserves BMW) +18.034s
Race three
1: Shane Byrne (PBM Kawasaki)
2: Josh Brookes (Milwaukee Yamaha) +0.304s
3: Tommy Bridewell (Tyco BMW) +2.113s
4: Danny Buchan (Be Wiser Kawasaki) +3.784s
5: James Ellison (JG Speedfit Kawasaki) +3.870s
6: Dan Linfoot (Honda Racing) +4.358s
Championship standings ahead of the Showdown
1: Josh Brookes (Milwaukee Yamaha) 553
2: Shane Byrne (PBM Kawasaki) 551
3: James Ellison (JG Speedfit Kawasaki) 522
4: Tommy Bridewell (Tyco BMW) 507
5: Dan Linfoot (Honda Racing) 507
6: Michael Laverty (Tyco BMW) 500
British Supersport
Jake Dixon snatched his fourth victory of the season to maintain his hopes of taking the Motorpoint British Supersport crown in a dramatic ending to the feature race in which Saturday’s race winner Andy Reid crashed out, moments after regaining the lead, at Lodge.
Reid had lost out to Dixon on the final lap but was giving nothing away as he powered his Team Traction Control Yamaha back into contention and going into the final corner he charged through on the inside, but seconds late his bike swerved wickedly out of line and both his bike and Reid were airborne and then down and out.
Dixon got through while Stapleford took to the grass, avoiding Reid and his bike, dropping back to third adrift of James Rispoli as the red-flags came out. Dixon reflected: “Andy came through, he came out wide, hit the dip and that unsettled his bike and unfortunately he crashed, but what a race that was.”
Stapleford had made the early running on the Profile Triumph, but Reid was ahead on the second lap to set up a thriller after the intervention of the Nissan GT-R Safety Car as marshals dealt with Sam Hornsey’s heavy crash at Lakeside.
Reid led, Rispoli went second, Dixon eased Stapleford to fourth – it was all change but Stapleford smashed the lap record to go back into second place and with three laps remaining he was leading but again Reid responded, taking Dixon and Rispoli with him. Again Stapleford came back at them, but had to settle for third, his lead extended to 69 points over Kyle Ryde who missed the race after crashing in the morning warm-up session.
Motorpoint British Supersport Championship feature race
1: Jake Dixon (Smiths Triumph)
2: James Rispoli (Team Traction Control Yamaha) +1.025s
3: Luke Stapleford (Profile Triumph) 1 lap
4: Glenn Irwin (Gearlink Kawasaki) 1 lap
5: Ben Wilson (Gearlink Kawasaki) 1 lap
Motorpoint British Supersport Championship standings
1: Luke Stapleford (Profile Triumph) 346
2: Kyle Ryde (PacedayZ Trackdays Yamaha) 277
3: Jake Dixon (Smiths Triumph) 248
4: Glenn Irwin (Gearlink Kawasaki) 236
5: James Rispoli (Team Traction Control Yamaha) 173
Pirelli National Superstock 1000 Championship
Alastair Seeley kept his hopes of regaining the crown with a hard fought victory over the series leader Josh Elliott, the Morello Kawasaki rider who had led the race from the sixth to the penultimate lap. Seeley had been running him close found a way through and then used the power of his Tyco BMW to hold him off, taking his fourth victory by 0.121s, to move within 17 points of Elliott. Hudson Kennaugh, the early race leader, took third ahead of Luke Quigley.
Pirelli National Superstock 600 Championship
Tarran Mackenzie with his third victory of the season denied Mason Law the chance of sealing the crown . The young Scot took the victory by 0.093secs aboard his Stauff Connect Academy Kawasaki ahead of Law on the NMT No Limits Kawasaki whose team-mate Jordan Weaving ran third. Law has a 47 points advantage going into the final two rounds. Benjmain Currie took fifth place.
HEL Performance British Motostar Championship
Scott Deroue stretched his lead to 39 points over the unlucky Taz Taylor who had smashed the lap record as he led the action until the eighth lap when his Woodhouse RS KTM was stopped by a machine problem. Deroue who had been running three seconds down eased his Redline KTM to victory ahead of Jake Archer and Charlie Nebitt. Cameron Horsman won the 125GP category ahead of Wesley Jonker and Liam Delves with series leader Josh Owens, despite a back of the grid start coming through into fourth.
Santander Consumer Finance KTM British Junior Cup
Kevin Keyes kept his title hopes alive with a hard fought fourth victory in a dramatic race that saw one of his main rivals Chris Taylor crash out of third at Lodge on the last lap. But Cameron Fraser increased his lead in the chase for the crown to 33 points as he completed a brace of second places in this penultimate round, crossing the line 0.312s down on Keyes. Dan Drayton took third.
