Jack Kennedy’s hopes of winning this year’s Quattro Group British Supersport Championship were boosted at Oulton Park on Sunday afternoon when he was awarded the victory in the Feature race after initial ‘winner’ Ben Currie received a three-second time penalty for overtaking under the safety car.
The Gearlink Kawasaki rider was pushed back to fourth with Lee Johnston going back to fifth, the Ashcourt Racing Yamaha rider having suffered a similar fate, and Kennedy now leads the title standings by 13 points when it looked like he’d be four points adrift of his Australian rival.
Currie led the field round at the end of the opening lap but Kennedy, Johnston and Harry Truelove were with him, the 600cc machines holding sway in the early stages. Mason Law was the best placed GP2 machine in sixth ahead of recently crowned champion Charlie Nesbitt.
Kennedy got shuffled back to fourth second time around but on lap three the leading four had opened up a gap over fifth placed Bradley Perie, the latter in danger of losing further ground in the title race. That’s exactly what happened too with the Appleyard Macadam Yamaha man going out on the following lap.
Lap five and the running order was Currie, Johnston, Truelove and Kennedy but they now had another rider for company with Nesbitt having disposed of Law to join the leading pack. They had a near second advantage over Law who held onto sixth from team-mate Jamie Perrin.
Things changed on lap six with Kennedy moving to the front of the group as they flashed across the line, his advantage over Currie just 0.012s but they now had a half second gap to Johnston, Truelove and Nesbitt.
Currie soon got back in front of Kennedy but any hope they had of making it a two-way battle didn’t last long as the group was soon back together, Nesbitt up into third at half race distance from Johnston, Truelove and a rapidly closing Law.
The next few laps saw a number of positional changes but by lap ten, Kennedy was holding a slim advantage from Johnston, Currie, Truelove and Nesbitt although the safety car was out shortly afterwards which saw the gaps close up even further.
Johnston had just taken the lead so it was he who led when racing resumed with only two laps remaining, Currie immediately retaking second from Kennedy.
Going into the final lap, the race was between four riders – Currie, Johnston, Truelove and Kennedy – and Currie went back into the lead at Island with both Kennedy and Truelove also getting ahead of Johnston.
Currie took the chequered flag but both he and Johnston were subsequently penalised and so it was Kennedy, Truelove and Law who claimed the top three spots, Law taking the GP2 honours after Nesbitt went out near the end.
Scott Swann took fourth overall and with it the final step on the Supersport podium, his first in the class, with Dan Jones and Jamie Perrin joining Law in the GP2 top three.
Currie and Johnston ended up in seventh and eighth overall – fourth and fifth in the Supersport standings – ahead of fellow 600cc runners Brandon Paasch and Jamie van Sikkelerus.