BSB:Oulton Park - One Ell' of a Showdown to Come!

Wow!

With the first of the BSB season's triple-headers now out of the way, I'm left exhilerated and excited for the upcoming Showdown and this was the first chance to see who out of the main contenders would be getting their qualification for said Showdown in early, and who would be forced to wait until the last minute...

The first bit of news saw Tommy Bridewell make a mid-season switch from his Batham's Honda Team, to Halsall Racing Team's Kawasaki machine to partner Lee Costello after a first half season of mixed fortunes. He seemed to be really pleased with the new machine that he was now going to be using for the remainder of the season, so we'll see how this bro' does as time goes by, huh?

QUALIFYING

Qualifying for this one took place in what was looking to be dodgy weather conditions that could have had a detrimental effect on the riders' chances for clocking up times close to the optimum times set in previous meetings.

This was a day for Alex Lowes to remember & forget in fairly equal measure as there were some events (his electric qualifying time of '1:35.119' being enough to seal a front spot on the grid, pipping Shane 'Shakey' Byrne to pole by .074 of a second.

'Shakey' in turn, was able to pull out a time that was .195 ahead of the Tyco Suzuki rider PJ Jacobsen, the American qualifying a stunning third placed position, one of his best ever positions in BSB so far.

James Ellison & Josh Brookes made up the rest of the first row... onto the action!

RACE ONE

The action got under way with the Rapid Solicitors bike of Byrne getting into the first corner first ahead of both Samsung Honda's of Kiyo (who'd qualified a depressing 17th!) & Lowes and if this was a sign of things to come then it would suggest that the pair would be pushing all the way for the win!

Mixed fortunes it was as Kiyo seemed to fade in race one, finishing in 6th position behind an immense... well, we'll get to that in due course, lol!

Josh Brookes used this chance to overtake Jacobsen, who was unfortunate enough to get drawn further into the pack on the start and you could see that he would be around for time to come yet, as long as he kept on performing like this.

Then, disaster strikes as Keith Farmer, Shakey's team-mate, loses control of his bike and then starts remonstrating with officials as though someone had dropped oil and that was what had caused his mishap...

Yeah, that's because someone had dropped oil; HE DID! :-O

Whoops boy-o, is all I can say at that point and because of the nature of the incident the race was red flagged whilst the marshals took the necessary precautions to cover the spillage over with grit. This caused a 1 lap reduction to be applied to this race as the first lap had just been completed when it happened, so it was fifteen instead of sixteen laps.

Unfortunately at this point, delays on getting back to the track for Jacobsen, Farmer & Howie Mainwaring resulted in the three of them being forced to start from pit lane as per regulations.

On the restart, it was Lowes, Byrne & Brookes making up the first three positions before a resurgent James Ellison, riding the cajones off his Milwaukee Yamaha, hit the front of the grid in style and proved to be the deciding factor in a changing race from lap 2.

Shortly after, Mainwaring was forced to pit with an unknown fault and unfortunately, he retired as a result.

For James Westmoreland, it would turn out to be a race to forget as a pit-stop forced him to rethink his race strategy which pretty much screwed up his race and resulted in a 22nd placed finish.

Byrne it was who tried to make a move on Lowes, but couldn't get the move to stick on lap 4, but his patience and perseverance would be rewarded at the Island bend. This would turn out to be where he would get it done on Lowes and it was looking like this would be a true test to see if he would be able to get the hammer down and pull out a lead.

James Ellison it was who had other ideas as he overtook the pair of them to take a stunning win, proving his earlier season form was no fluke!

He finished just .186 of a second ahead of Shakey...

Behind those two, and a further 1.9 & then 4.3 seconds back, Lowes brought his machine home on the third step of the podium to stop Brookes from stealing the position from him.

RACE TWO
With fastest laps dictating the order for the second race of the weekend, Shane Byrne's time of 1:35.842, averaging a speed of 101MPH, would turn out to be sufficient to give him pole position ahead of Alex Lowes, the race one winner James Ellison & Ryuichi Kiyonari.

Tommy Bridewell, proved that his race one finish of 5th position was no fluke as he was next to line up on the grid ahead of Josh Brookes.

Once again though, on the race start, Lowes it would be who would get into the first corner ahead of Shakey and this looked like it was high time Lowes was rewarded for his persistence throughout the race weekend so far...

Not so, which we'll cover in due course.

James Ellison, at this point, was looking to confirm that his race one victory was no fluke and fully set out his intentions to be as close to the sharp end of the grid as possible.

Shakey, meanwhile, managed to get ahead of Lowes at Lodge Corner, but by the time they'd travelled the straight to Old Hall Corner, Lowes had been given enough confidence to apply his traction and make sure that he got the position back from the Rapid Solicitors Kawasaki rider.

Lap six saw Chris Walker in the pits a move that would see him drop back in the pack and finish ultimately in the garage.

How mixed fortunes can afflict, as by the end of lap 6, at the front end of the grid, Shane Byrne had finally managed to re-take the race lead!

The Samsung Honda of Josh Brookes by this time had been quietly, quietly, making his way towards the front of the pack and he managed to overtake Lowes, his main championship rival (aside from Shakey, of course!) on lap 12.

Aggression was on the cards here as Lowes, squabbling for position with Ellison now, stuffed his bike up the inside towards the end of the lap resulting in Ellison having to pitch wide and bail before his bike hit the tyre wall. This was a move which, after the race, he said he knew he only had a couple of seconds to decide else the consequences could have been far, far worse for him.

So with the podium now looking like Byrne, Lowes & Brookes all the way, it came as quite a shock to see Lowes bottom out on the final lap to not only hand race victory to Byrne, but also to promote Brookes into 2nd position.

Kiyo missed out and came home in 4th position.

With this result, it was Shakey's 50th win on a BSB podium and it looked foreboding for the rest of the guys (and gal of course!) on the grid as they head ever closer to the Showdown.

RACE THREE

Due to Alex Lowes overtly aggressive manoeuvre (something which I consider a joke as it was a racing incident!), he was penalised four grid places for race three and when asked he seemed mighty disappointed but not enough to say words he might've regretted later on, professional bro' that he is!

The grid then, saw Byrne, Ellison, Brookes & Kiyo on the front row and it would come as no surprise to find out that Shakey was first into corner one, would it? Though he did almost lose out at one point to the Milwaukee Yamaha rider, Ellison.

I have forgotten how many times I've mentioned Ellison by name now, but this proves that he was fully committed to proving that he was no fluke (again, I've already said that, haven't I, bro's?) and was determined to get as many podium credits as he could come Showdown time.

However, this would be a race to forget for Michael Rutter, who lost his Bathams Honda bringing out a safety car for the next three laps taking it to lap 5 before things resumed normality (though what was normal after this manic race weekend?).

On the restart, Lowes it was who got the best of Brookes and this time, he was determined to make up for his earlier boo-boo and try his damnedest for a race win at Oulton Park.

He then went on to do exactly the same manoeuvre at Highland as that which saw him penalised in the previous race, again on Ellison proving that he was no fool when it came to race direction.

Lap 11 saw Tommy Bridewell, looking awesome after mishaps earlier in the season, on his new Halsall machine meaning that he would be on course to set a best ever position for himself.

By now Josh Brookes it was who was determined to get a win at Oulton Park having not got one so far and you could argue that out of the three top title contenders, Brookes looked just as likely to get one. When he overtook race leader Byrne on lap 13, it looked like it would finally be time for him to celebrate come race end.

Bridewell it was who wasn't finished as he was not settling for fourth position, getting third from Alex Lowes, proving that whatever was in that machine (or whatever he'd 'had for breakfast that morning' the ITV4 commentators Jack Burnicle & James Whitham quipped!) was certainly working far better than his last machine.

So with Brookes leading Shakey, leading Bridewell, leading Lowes, it really was anyone's guess as to who would win this one!

By now, James Ellison was creeping back toward the front of the grid along with Lowes and the two of them were squabbling it out to decide who should finish above the other.

In the end, it would be Byrne who would lose out to Brookes who as mentioned already, got his first win at Oulton Park, with Alex Lowes getting another third position.

James Ellison & Tommy Bridewell made up the next two positions, proving that neither were to be discounted when it came to top drawer performances in-race.

WRAP UP

So, with that being said, it was now confirmed that Brookes, Byrne & Lowes were the one's who would be celebrating most now as they were mathematically confirmed as Showdown entrants later on in the season.

Next time out, it's Cadwell Park so we'll see if it can be anywhere near as entertaining as this one... I doubt it, I really do!

Right, I'm off to douse my head in a cold water as just writing about it a matter of hours after I've seen it is bringing it all back, HA!

Peace out!


The Lanky Penguin