Wednesday April 3, 2019 at 2:02pm
There was hardly time for the British Motorcycle Racing Club paddock to catch its collective breath after Brands Hatch, with riders packing up and heading north to Cheshire’s glorious Oulton Park just a few weeks later for the second round of the championship. The spectacular yet tricky circuit also played host to the first DFDS Yamaha Past Masters round after the long-standing class missed the Brands Hatch opener. The Oulton Park schedule also saw one day of practice and the customary solitary day of racing. ProperlyProtected.co.uk MRO Minitwins There remains only two winners so far this season in the ProperlyProtected.co.uk MRO Minitwin championship, with early series leader Glynn Davies and Daniel Singleton sharing the spoils at Oulton Park. Davies arrived with three wins to his name after the opening round at Brands, with Singleton boasting only the solitary victory, yet it was Povah - a Brands Hatch podium man - who set pole, with the front row covered by a little over a tenth of a second. Race one and it was David Twyford - who qualified on the inside of the front row - who grabbed the early advantage, pulling over a second on the first circulation. Davies slotted into second, and began hunting down the race leader. Meanwhile, Singleton endured a terrible start, and would only complete one lap before retiring. At the sharp end Twyford continued to lead, but Davies edged ever closer while Mark Taylor occupied third, all the time being stalked by pole-sitter Povah. On the penultimate lap of the race Povah moved into a podium position, ousting Taylor and demoting him to fourth, where he would finish. A lap later and Davies passed Twyford for the win, his fourth from five races. Twyford was second. The Rookie win was awarded to eighth placed finisher Matt Wetherell. Singleton put the disappointment of race one behind him, and came out swinging in race two. Starting 23rd on the grid he was up to an astonishing sixth on lap one. A lap later he was third and by lap three he held the lead. He was unable to pull away from there though, and it was a three-way battle for victory between Singleton, Povah, and Davies, and only six tenths of a second was the gap at the chequered flag. Davies would be slapped with a 10-second penalty after jumping the start, but it would matter little to the result, after crossing the line third, over 10 seconds ahead of Taylor in fourth place. Wetherell was again eighth and again the Rookie winner. Reactive Parts MRO Powerbikes and Racebuykz.com Clubman 1000 Pole and brace of victories made it a perfect hat-trick for Christie O’Connor in the Reactive Parts MRO Powerbikes. The Yamaha-mounted racer was narrowly quickest in qualifying, bettering current championship leader and fellow R1 rider Michael O’Brien by less than a tenth of a second to take pole, but it was Tom Tunstall who would provide the stiffest competition come the two races. O’Connor led every lap of race one, with Tunstall second for every circulation to the chequered flag, never close enough to mount an assault but close enough to keep the pole-man honest. However, Tunstall will not score championship points for his efforts. The relatively processional encounter also saw O’Brien convert a front row to a podium, as he took third. Daniel Johnson continued to impress in a competitive field, and secured the Racebuykz.com Clubman 1000 win with a very credible sixth place, finishing ahead of fellow prospect Aiden Patmore and former class champions Anthony Johnson and Peter Baker. Despite being a repeat podium in race two, the racing was altogether more exciting, as just three tenths of a second split O’Connor and Tunstall, with O’Brien just one and a half seconds further back in third. O’Connor led from the off, and pulled out a lead of nearly three seconds before the halfway stage. It looked like another foregone conclusion, but as O’Connor slowed in the latter stages, Tunstall picked up the pace, spurred on as he reeled O’Connor in. The gap tumbled. Tunstall took a second out of O’Connor with two to go, and was less than a second behind starting the final lap. Yet it wasn’t quite enough - he could only take another half a second off the lead at the final attempt, and had to settle for second place ahead of O’Brien in third. Mark Bridger in ninth took the Clubman win, after battling with fellow Clubman runners Max Morgan and Glenn Walsh. Team Respro MRO 600 and MSS Performance Clubman 600 The second round of the Team Respro MRO 600 and MSS Performance Clubman 600 championships were dominated by one rider, with Adam Hartgrove bagging pole and two race wins. However, he is not eligible for championship points. In race one he had to overcome Michael Evans to taste victory, as the second quickest rider in qualifying grabbed the lead off the start. He held onto it, too, keeping Hartgrove at bay for the first half of the race. Once passed, Evans slotted in behind and did his best to hang onto Hartgrove’s coat tails and keep up the pressure. He managed to stay close until the final lap, when he gave up nearly a second to the new race leader, and with it any chance of mounting a last-lap assault on the lead. Hartgrove instead took the win, with Evans second and Cameron Fraser third. Race two proved easier for Hartgrove, this time the number 26-plated Yamaha R6 taking the lead on lap one and holding it for the remainder of the race, pulling out an advantage of over four seconds in the process. Behind, Evans rode to a lonely second place, with Fraser third after holding off the attentions of Scott Stevens. Stevens’ fourth in race two, added to his sixth in race one, gave him both of the weekend’s MSS Performance Clubman 600 wins, his first of the year. L&W Contractors Rookie 600 and 1000 Cedric Bloch maintained his 100% record in the L&W Contractors Rookie 600 class, winning both races leading for many to pencil him in as an early favourite for this year’s crown. Bloch took all four wins at the season-opener at Brands Hatch, and was untouchable again this weekend. He took the win in race one by 10 seconds, with Toby Reynolds second and Elliot Fricker third. That was followed up by another win in race two, although this time he was chased all the way to the line by Fricker, less than half a second the difference at the chequered flag. Third went to Reynolds. In the Rookie 1000 championship Michael Cherrett was the victor in the first race, crossing the line a huge 28 and a half seconds ahead of runner-up Chris Thomson after Luke Dixon crashed out. Seb Jenkins was third. There was an equally significant margin of victory in the second outing, this time with Luke Dixon the victor by half a minute, as Cherrett finished second and Jenkins third. DFDS Yamaha Past Masters Oulton Park marked the opening round of the DFDS Yamaha Past Master championship for 2019, and Scott Grant was quick off the mark to qualify quickest by nearly a second, as he looks to finally get a championship win under his belt. And he converted it to victory in the first race of the year, too, despite a intense battle with Doug Edmondson. Seven tenths of a second was the most the gap between the two of them extended to, with Edmondson the early leader and Grant in tow. The dicing at the front saw Grant lead across the line for the first time at the start of the penultimate lap, and he held on to take the win, with Edmondson second. There was a similarly intense battle for third, which saw much swapping of position. It went the way of Peter Moore following a last lap pass on Ben Miles, who was forced to settle for fourth ahead of Scott Carson and former champion Peter Branton. Douglas Beacock was the Clubman victor in eighth. The Rookie win went to Richard Haywood in 13th. Looking to do the double, Grant led race two, while his adversary from race one failed to complete one lap with mechanical trouble. Sadly for Grant he would crash from the lead on lap five, allowing Miles to inherit the lead. Miles and Moore resumed their battle from race one, with Moore again coming out on top, this time for the win, just a tenth of a second covering them at the chequered flag. Branton was third, himself just two tenths ahead of Carson. Beacock added another Clubman win to his tally, with Haywood the Rookie winner in 10th. RKB-F1 and F2 Sidecars Lewis Blackstock and passenger Paddy Rosney looked set to dominate the two RKB-F1 and F2 sidecar races around the Oulton Park circuit, after setting a pole position time over a second quicker than anyone else. And dominate race one they did, recovering from a mediocre start from the head of the front row to hit the front on lap two and storm to a 10-second win. The pairings of John Holden and Lee Cain and Lee Crawford and Scott Hardie were left behind to dice it out for the F2 win, finishing second and third respectively, a little over a second apart. Blackstock and Rosney shadowed Holden and Cain on the opening lap of the second race, before forcing the issue on lap two to take the lead. They pulled away and looked on course to take another victory, but their race ended by rolling down pitlane on the penultimate lap. The same fate befell race one F2-class winners Holden and Cain, who started the penultimate lap while circulating in third before ending it in gasoline alley. The lead was handed to Sam and Adam Christie, the pair taking the overall and F1 class win, with Jevan Walmsley and driver Peter Founds second and the F2 victors. Crawford and Hardie grabbed the final podium spot and the silver medal in the F2 category. EDIasia Formula 400 There remain only two winners this season to date in the EDIasia Formula 400 series, as Chris Burrage and Glynn Davies took one win apiece at Oulton Park. It was Burrage who drew first blood, qualifying fastest and leading early in race two. Pressure came from Davies, however, the championship leader taking the lead on lap five, but Burrage was back in front a lap later when the red flags came out for an incident at Old Hall. Matthew Scott took third, with the Sub-64bhp class victory going to Ben Miles in seventh. Davies carried out his revenge in race two in the best possible fashion, leading from start-to-finish to take a commanding win, crossing the line and taking the flag with Burrage six seconds further down the road behind him. Scott grabbed another third, as Miles, too, secured another Sub-64 with another seventh. Steve Jordan Motorcycles BMCRC Thunderbike Sport Daniel Singleton arrived for the second round of the Steve Jordan Motorcycles BMCRC Thunderbike Sport championship one point adrift at the top of the series standings, but made sure he left as the points leader with pole and two dominant wins. In fact, two wins from two races looked a dead-cert after qualifying fastest by a whopping 1.7 seconds, and he duly obliged, storming to an 18-second victory in race one. Second was taken by impressive Rookie Luke Stoneman, with Adam Jamison third. While Singleton wasn’t as dominant in race two, he still took a commanding win, taking the chequered flag 10 seconds ahead of his nearest challenger. Shane Beasley was that nearest challenger, picking up second position ahead of Stoneman, who took another impressive podium in third and with it the second Rookie win. Steve Jordan Motorcycles BMCRC Thunderbike Extreme and Thunderbike Ultra The second round of the Steve Jordan Motorcycles BMCRC Thunderbike Extreme and new Thunderbike Ultra championship saw Aiden Patmore extend his early season series lead, as he grabbed both overall wins and with them two Ultra class wins. In fact it was an all-Ultra podium in race one, with Patmore the victor ahead of Steve Palmer. The fight for third was decided by just two tenths of a second, with Ande Friend holding off Barry Chamberlain. While it was a repeat podium in race two it was a tighter fight at the front. Patmore and Palmer were locked together, Patmore mostly holding the lead but Palmer took his turn in front. But at the flag it was Patmore who clinched another 25 championship points, with Palmer half a second back as the runner-up. Friend was third, this time comfortably pulling away from Chamberlain in fourth. In the Extreme class, Adam Norton and Andrew Saunders took one win each. ACU Team Green Junior Cup and Senior Ninja Cup The ACU Team Green Junior Cup and Senior Ninja Cup again provided some of the closest racing, despite it being the same winner in both outings. That winner was Max Lofthouse, the Junior Cup rider setting pole before his brace of victories. It was anything but comfortable, however, and in race one he endured plenty of pressure from Harry Fowle, the pair swapping the lead readily. After eight laps of the Oulton Park circuit however it was Lofthouse who came out on top, crossing the line two tenths of a second ahead of Fowle. Fowle, however, picked up the Senior Cup win. Behind, Kai Dickinson rode to a lonely third place and second in the Senior class. In race two Lofthouse, Fowle, and Dickinson all took turns at leading, the trio tied together until Lofthouse broke away in the latter stages. He pulled a gap of nearly three seconds in the end to take another overall and Junior Cup win. The runner-up position and Senior win, however, was decided by just four hundredths of a second, Fowle and Dickinson drag-racing each other to the line, with Fowle taking another Senior class victory.