JG Speedfit Kawasaki’s Leon Haslam was victorious in the second MCE British Superbike race at Oulton Park, and snatched the lead and win from team-mate James Ellison. Honda Racing’s Dan Linfoot completed the rostrum, and with Ellison finishing in second he now confirms his spot in the all important Showdown.
But it was a dramatic race and fight for the final spot in the top six in the overall standings, with Tyco BMW’s Michael Laverty, JG Speedfit’s Peter Hickman, Quattro Plant Kawasaki’s Luke Mossey and Buildbase BMW’s Richard Cooper all in the scrap to finish high up the grid.
With one lap remaining it looked as if Laverty would finish ahead of the foursome, but he crashed at Hizzys on the final lap whilst in seventh and now only two points separate Laverty, Hickman and Mossey going into the final race at the Cheshire track this afternoon.
With Haslam bagging maximum points he closes the podium credit gap to two points on title rival Shane Byrne. But at first it was Ellison who got the hole-shot from Linfoot and Haslam, who were close behind. In a repeat of the first race Haslam opted for the harder rear tyre and Mossey, Laverty followed suit.
But it was not a great start for Be Wiser Ducati’s Shane Byrne who crashed whilst in seventh, but was not hurt and walked away from the incident at Hizzy’s on lap five of eighteen.
With twelve rotations left the dicing trio of Ellison, Linfoot and Haslam pulled away slightly from Mossey, Bridewell and a resurgent John Hopkins.
Showdown hopefuls Cooper and Laverty were involved in a fight on the circuit for eleventh with the pair swapping places. But further up the pack another top six contender, Mossey was basking in fourth and then went wide off track and dropped two places on lap nine at Hizzys.
Cooper was another rider who made a mistake and also went wide and fell back down the field to sixteenth with eight laps to go.
Meanwhile at the front Haslam overtook Linfoot at Lodge to go into second on lap ten, and had his team-mate as his next target, and he finally made his move on Ellison to go into the provisional race winning position at Lodge five laps later.
Former MotoGP racer, ePayMe Yamaha’s John Hopkins was riding high inside the top five and was challenging O’Halloran for fourth, but with four laps remaining he crashed unhurt at Shell. The American was not the only rider to succumb to the tricky track as Buildbase BMW’s Lee Jackson crashed at Cascades.
But the fight was definitely on between Hickman and Laverty on the penultimate lap, with the Northern Irishman gaining momentum and passing both the JG Speedfit Kawasaki machine and young gun, Jake Dixon to go into seventh.
On the final lap, the JG Speedfit backed ZX-10R’s of Haslam and Ellison edged away from Linfoot with 1.4 seconds separating the threesome. Meanwhile the drama was not too far away as a steady looking Laverty crashed at Hizzys, and this puts his Showdown ambitions in jeopardy.
At the flag O’Halloran, Mossey, Bridewell, Hickman, Dixon, Irwin and Smith Racing’s newest recruit Ryuichi Kiyonari completed the top ten. Cooper is still in showdown contention after crossing the line in twelfth, with Buchan, Parkes and Seeley the last of the points finishers.
