J&S Supported Rider results - Oulton Park

Hi everyone, and welcome to the first instalment of the J&S supported riders blog for the 2021 British Superbike season. This season once again, J&S have supported riders in the main Superbike class and a collection of established riders in the support classes. So let's get straight into the action and see what went on this weekend.

The first round came from Oulton Park, which is very close to our flagship store J&S Oakmere . A total of 4000 fans were allowed to be trackside for the first round. A small amount given the massive size of Oulton Park, but let's not get into politics shall we!?

A new qualifying format for the Superbike class, with the top 12 riders with the fastest combined times from free practice 1 and 2, going straight into Q2. The rest of the field goes into Q1 to battle it out. The top 6 riders from Q1 then go into Q2 with the fastest riders from free practice 1 and 2. Still with me? I hope so..... Q2 and the top 18 riders try and set a fast enough time to get themselves high enough up the grids for the first race of the weekend. Got all that?? Good, let's move on and give you some results.

Qualifying finally finished with all our supported riders making it into the battle for pole. Once the flag had dropped and the times had been set, it was last years title contender Glenn Irwin who was fastest of the J&S backed riders and set a time fast enough for 8th on the grid, closely followed by Gino Rea, who we welcome back into the J&S family for 2021. Gino qualified in 10th for the first race and the final supported rider in the Superbike class in Local rider Joe Francis back again for another year on the new BMW bike. Joe qualified in 17th place.

The first race of the season and all the cobwebs were blown away once the lights went out. A quick end to the race for Joe Francis who's race ended on lap 2 with a crash, but it was a points-scoring start for the remaining two J&S riders, with Gino Rea coming home just outside the top 10 in 11th place, Glenn Irwin finished in 6th and a solid start for the Honda rider.

Race two and another point-scoring haul for Glenn and Gino, with 9th and 13th places, Joe once again had a DNF next to his name, not the way he had hoped to start his season.

The third and final race saw Joe's weekend go from bad to worse with another DNF on the results sheet, not the way he wanted his season to start, that's for sure. Meanwhile, Glenn and Gino had a solid race and scored more championship points, with Glenn crossing the line in 10th place and Gino behind in 11th.

In British Supersport and GP2, we have Dan Jones in the GP2 class once again gunning for glory. In Supersport, Ben Currie was back again for another shot at the Supersport title. Joining the class this season is Rhys Irwin. Rhys is stepping up from the Superstock 600 class for 2021, and I'm sure he has set himself some very high targets after a successful season in 2020. Qualifying saw Dan set a time quick enough for 22nd on the grid. Both Rhys and Ben qualified in the top 10. Rhys started from 8th on the gird, which is an excellent result in his first Supersport race, Ben on the other hand, hit the ground running and put his Kawasaki on the outside o the front row in 3rd position.

The shorter sprint race on Saturday was over 12 laps saw superb results for all the J&S backed riders, with all three of them scoring points in both the GP2 and Supersport championship. Dan crossed the line in 17th place overall but was 6th in the GP2 class. Rhys had a great race and came home in 11th overall and 7th in the Supersport standings. Meanwhile, Ben Currie started this season the same way he ended the 2020 season with a podium and 3rd place finish.

Race two saw much of the same with the same riders up at the front end of the grid. A longer race on the Sunday with 15 laps in-store, once again, all the J&S backed riders came home in points-scoring positions. Dan Jones came home in 14th overall and 6th in the GP2 class. Rhys Irwin finished in 13th place in the Supersport class. Ben Currie only just missed out on the final podium place as a slight mistake and an issue with his brakes saw Ben slip down to 4th place, but all in all, an excellent weekend for the Supersport riders.

The Honda Talent Cup is back again in 2021, and Sullivan Mounsey is back again with the same Lloyd & Jones team. A great qualifying session saw Sullivan set a time fast enough for 9th on the grid. He made a great start to the race and was up to 4th place by the end of lap 1, but a nasty crash saw the red flag come out, and a race restart was required. Sullivan made a great start but slid off at Hizzy's chicane. Race two saw Sullivan start from 14th on the grid and work up to a fantastic 7th place by the end of the race. 

This weekend's last class was the Superstock 1000, and a few familiar faces back again for 2021. Back again is the popular Aussie Billy McConnell joining him in the Stock 1000 class in Luke Mossey. Another returning face was Lewis Rollo, a race winner last season, but the young Scots man has a new team for 2021 and joins forces with the RAF Regular and Reserve Kawasaki team. Ben Luxton joins the ever-competitive IN Competition Aprilia team. The final rider backed by J&S is the brother of Rhys Irwin, Caolan Irwin. Yes, we are supporting the brothers again.

Qualifying saw the riders line up as follows, Caolan qualified in 38th place after coming through a 'Last Chance' qualifying race due to the field being so big in the Superstock class, Ben was 31st on the grid, with Lewis just missing out on the top 10 but starting from 11th on the grid. Luke Mossey started from the inside of the second row in 4th place. Meanwhile, a front-row start for Billy McConnell, who put his OMG Racing BMW in 3rd place to start the race.

A packed grid in the Superstock class with action from the front to the back of the grid. Caolan had a DNF in his first Superstock race, and Ben Luxton had a great race battling his way up from 38th to cross the line in 25th place. Lewis Rollo faired well for his new team with a solid 12th place and some valuable points. At the front, it was a battle of the ex OMG riders, with Luke Mossey getting the better of Billy McConnell, but they both managed to finish on the podium. Luke got the better of Billy and came home in 2nd place with Billy behind in 3rd. 

That's it for this weekend! It was great to have a safe weekend with all the riders escaping without any injuries. The next stop for the championship is Knockhill up in Scotland, which takes place over the weekend of 10th-11th July. So until next time, thanks for reading.

Until next time, stay safe,

Danny