2022 BSB Round 2 Oulton Park

Hi everyone and welcome to the second instalment of the British Superbike championship round-up. The past weekend saw the action come from Oulton Park. A local round for J&S as our flagship store is only a few minutes away (four to be exact!).

Let's start with the Honda Talent Cup. Harrison Crosby started the first race of the weekend from 2nd position on the grid after a great qualifying session. But unfortunately in both races, Harrison suffered from two DNFs. In the first race, Harrison had to avoid another rider who had fallen right in front of him and was unable to stay upright on the wet grass and fell just metres from the finish line and didn’t add any points to his championship total.

Junior Superstock saw a mixed weekend for the two J&S supported riders. Zak Shelton qualified in 29th position and Osian Jones just ahead in 27th. The first race saw both riders improve from the starting positions with Zak coming home in 17th and Osian moving up to 20th place. The second race saw Zak once again just miss out on a championship point by finishing in 17th place, Osian suffered a DNF and is yet to open his points account for this season.

On to British Superstock and a packed field of 40 riders all battling to start as high up the grid as possible. Ant Moore qualified down in 40th position for the only race of the weekend, next up Tom Oliver would start from 19th position, then a group of J&S backed riders in a group of their own, Lewis Rollo in 18th, Tom Ward in 17th, his Aprilia teammate Matt Truelove in 16th, next up was local rider Joe Francis who would start from 5th place and the second row of the grid. Charlie Nesbitt on his Suzuki would start on the outside of the front row with a solid 3rd position. But it was that man again Billy McConnell who put his Honda Fireblade on pole position for the second round in a row.

The race saw Joe Francis, Tom Oliver, and Charlie Nesbitt all have a DNF on the scoring chart for this weekend. Not the way I’m sure they wanted to end the weekend. Matt Truelove scored a championship point by coming home in 15th place, Tom Ward on the IN Competition Aprilia came home in the top 10 with an 8th place finish just in front was Lewis Rollo in 7th position. But it was a race win for Billy McConnell, Billy bided his time and measured up a overtake on the final lap to take the race win and add 25 points to his championship total and kick start his campaign.

British Supersport saw Harry Truelove start from 5th place on the grid for the first race of the weekend. Harry had two races this weekend and came home with two solid results and finished in 4th place finish in both races. Great results from Harry who is still finding his fit on a new bike for this season but consistency is key in a tightly packed championship.

The Superbike class once again saw three races over the course of the bank holiday weekend. Qualifying in mixed conditions saw riders not starting where they normally would do. Leon Jeacock was down in 29th place for the first race, in front of him was young Dan Jones who experienced his first laps in damp conditions on a superbike, Dan would start the first race from 26th on the grid, championship leader Glenn Irwin starting from the outside of the third row in 9th position, but it was Luke Mossey who would start from 3rd on the grid after gaining some valuable track time in the first qualifying session.

The first race saw Leon come home in 28th place, Dan in front in 27th, Luke slipped down the field after running wide at the Shell Oils hairpin and would eventually finish in 24th place. Glenn scored a handful of points to add to his tally with an 11th place finish.

The second race saw Luke crash and end his weekend early after damaging his shoulder and ruled him out of the rest of the weekend's action. Leon again improved and came home in 25th position, again Dan just ahead in 23rd place, and this time round Glenn sneaked into the top 10 with a 9th place finish.

The third and final race once again saw the J&S backed riders all improved from the starting positions on the grid. Leon improved to finish in 20th position, Dan Jones gained a top 20 finish by crossing the line in 19th place, and Glenn once again moved higher up the top 10 and came home in 7th overall.

So no wins this time out in the Superbike class but valuable championship points for Glenn.

A little break for the championship now, but all eyes will focus on the road racing season which is about to start. Glenn Irwin will once again be looking to keep up his excellent record at the North West 200 before coming back to domestic action which takes place from Donington Park over the weekend of 20-22nd May.

So until then thanks for reading.

Dan @ J&S Leeds