Tyco Suzuki’s Josh Brookes fought off the advances of Rapid Solicitors Kawasaki’s Shane Byrne to storm to his first ever MCE British Superbike race victory at Oulton Park, in the final race of the afternoon.
The reigning champ could not get past the Aussie, and had to settle for second, with Samsung Honda’s Alex Lowes making his way on to the third step of the rostrum.
Byrne led from the opening lap, followed by Milwaukee Yamaha’s James Ellison and Samsung Honda’s Ryuichi Kiyonari. Lowes had to start from the second row, in seventh as he had a four place grid penalty after a move on Ellison in race two.
On lap two the safety car was deployed after Bathams Honda rider Michael Rutter suffered a technical problem at Old Hall, and oil was spilled on to the track. After four laps the safety car went back to the pits and Lowes decided to make a move at Old Hall, to go second.
On lap seven Byrne was still leading the charge, elsewhere Kiyo was up to fifth, but went wide at Hizzy’s after an altercation with Halsall Racing’s Tommy Bridewell, and the former triple champion went wide and had to join from the back of the pack. Two laps later Tyco Suzuki’s PJ Jacobsen went wide in exactly the same place after the New Yorker suffered a technical problem and then later returned to his garage.
On lap twelve Brookes found some extra pace to make a move on Lowes at Hizzy's and a lap later got the better of race two winner Byrne to go first at Cascades, only for Byrne to go straight back in the lead.
Bridewell obviously had enough of waiting behind Ellison and made a move going into the home straight and went up to third after overtaking Lowes in the process. But that only lasted till the Old Hall corner and Lowes and Ellison managed to regain their old positions, and the Devizes rider found himself back in fifth.
Brookes made his move at Druids, and this time it stuck on Byrne and even though the Kawasaki rider tried to get the better of the Aussie he could not get back in the lead and Brookes pushed ahead to clinch his second win of the season, followed by Byrne and Lowes rounding off the top three.
On the final lap there was a small altercation between Lowes and Byrne when the Derby lad banged into the reigning champ at Shell, but neither riders fell off and both made it to the finishing line. Now both Brookes and Lowes have secured their places in the Showdown along with Byrne. Ellison managed to hold off the Devizes swearbox of Bridewell to finish in fourth.
Thirteen seconds behind the leading five bikes was Buildbase BMW’s James Westmoreland. The quiet Yorkshireman made his way through the pack from twelfth to sixth, after battling with his rather taller team-mate, Jon Kirkham. Rapid Solicitors Kawasaki’s Keith Farmer made his way into the points with a seventh place finish, followed closely by Tsingtao WKbikes Performance Racing’s Howie Mainwaring, who was as high as sixth after three laps. Kiyo ended the final race of the day rounding off the top ten, after pushing his way from last to tenth.