BSB: Oulton Park – Round 2 Preview

A fortnight on from a simply incredible opening round, the British Superbike Championship heads to the fast and flowing Oulton Park circuit this bank holiday weekend.

The 2.69 mile circuit, situated on the edge of Delamere Forest in Cheshire, is one of the most popular venues on the calendar with spectators. It is also one of the riders’ favourites with everything to test man and machine with flowing corners, to long straights and a couple of wickedly fast chicanes thrown in for good measure.

Spectacular racing is guaranteed.

All eyes will be on Tarran MacKenzie (McAMS Yamaha) and Josh Elliott (OMG Racing Suzuki), following their victories last time out at Silverstone. Nobody expected the privateer Suzuki team to have such a strong weekend, with Elliott (in just his third BSB outing) a constant presence at the sharp end of the field. The icing on the cake being a maiden victory in the class. The first of undoubtedly many more to come.

MacKenzie redeemed himself in the second race, having knocked his teammate out of the race on the final lap of race 1. No such dramas befell the 23-year old in race 2, and held on to claim his first win of the season.

Both riders will be expecting to follow up with a brace of strong results again this weekend.

It is a completely different scenario facing two of the pre-season favourites this weekend. Australian Josh Brookes endured a nightmare debut weekend for the BeWiser Ducati team, as his Panigale V4R machine was plagued with technical issues. The 2015 champion consequently suffered two non-finishes. However, Brookes was dominant last week at the official test day at Oulton Park, lapping on average around 0.5s ahead of the field. Confidence will be restored coming in to this weekend.

Lady Fortune also cruelly deserted Brookes’ compatriot Jason O’Halloran  (McAMS Yamaha) at Silverstone. Taken out by his teammate on the final lap of the first race whilst leading was bad enough. In the second race, he was forced to retire early due to mechanical issues – a legacy from the earlier collision. Oulton Park has been a happy hunting ground for O’Halloran throughout his BSB career, even when on Honda machinery. He looked strong during the test day and will be determined to get off the mark in style this weekend at one of his favourite circuits on the calendar.   

Despite being the success stories for Ducati at Silverstone, both Tommy Bridewell (Oxford Racing Ducati) and Scott Redding (BeWiser Ducati) were very critical of their fellow competitors in the aftermath of the opening round. Bridewell described much of the field as “serious lunatics” following the two fiercely contested races, whilst Redding claimed that “people were just smashing each other off”. Redding had been the unfortunate victim of the opening lap melee in race 2 at Brooklands, tangling with Honda Racing’s Andrew Irwin and crashed out.

This weekend’s round is also the final opportunity for teams and riders contesting the North West 200 to finalise their bike setups. With its mix of fast corners, undulation changes and a not entirely smooth track surface, Oulton Park provides a near perfect test ground for the road racers in BSB. Peter Hickman (Smiths Racing BMW) and Dean Harrison (Silicone Engineering Kawasaki) will therefore be expecting to feature more this weekend as a result. Hickman produced a strong showing here last season to secure a place in ‘The Showdown’, and with more miles put through the all new BMW S1000RR machine, everything is set for the Lincolnshireman to put down his first marker of the season.

Qualifying:

Sunday – 16.15

Race 1:

Monday – 13.30

Race 2:

Monday – 16.30