The second round of the British Motorcycle Racing Club’s 2025 season took them from Brands Hatch in Kent up to Oulton Park in Cheshire, for a two-day meeting at the historic, picturesque circuit.
In the Reactive Parts MRO Powerbikes there were plenty of big names on the grid, getting in some extra track time, including pole-sitter Josh Owens, a former BSB privateer and Superstock 1000 front-runner. Honda-backed Manxman Nathan Harrison was also on the start list alongside another familiar name at the TT, Phil Crowe.
And it was former the former superbike pilot of Owens that secured all three wins. Aboard his JR Performance Honda he took the chequered flag ahead of his teammate, Finley Arscott on each occasion.
Crowe bagged himself a podium in race one, before adding a pair of fourth place finishes to his weekend’s haul, as he was twice bettered by Harrison Crosby. After finishing five seconds adrift of Arscott in race two, race three was a different story, with the pair split by just a tenth of a second.
Two 13ths and a 14th overall gave Sam Cranstone a trio of Clubman 1000 wins, while there was also a hat-trick of victories for Tyler Donovan in the Retro 1000 class.
Manxman and TT-hopeful Harrison was also making an appearance in the DART Motorsport MRO 600 races aboard a CBR600RR Honda. He swept to pole position in qualifying and won two of the weekend’s three races, before electing to sit out the final outing.
That left Michael Tustin to win aboard his Keder Greenhouse Yamaha R6, after a third and a second in the previous races. Zack Weston finished second and third in races one and two, before following Tustin home in the final race. Matt Pallett completed the rostrum.
Paul Bloomfield secured two of the three Clubman wins, the other going to Rhys Forrest.
There were two winners from the three races in the L&W Contractors Rookie 1000s and 600s. In the litre bike class Kieran Wynn was a two-time winner on his Kawasaki ZX-10R, but a crash on lap three in race three left Tommy Jones to claim victory.
In the 600 category Stephen Roberts tasted victory in race one, but it was Sean Gosling who doubled up, winning races two and three.
Less than three tenths of a second was all that covered the top three in the opening ProperlyProtected.co.uk MRO Minitwins race of the weekend, but after winning all four races at the season opener, David Twyford could only manage a trio of thirds at Oulton Park, as David Lindemann did the hat-trick.
The close racing that has come to define the Minitwin class over the years saw Lindemann chased across the line by Twyford in race one, less than a tenth of a second between them, with Darren Dowds a fraction of a second back in third.
A relatively large margin of a second was the gap between the same winner and runner-up in race two, with Dowds again third. It was a repeat podium again in race three, with Lindemann making it a perfect weekend. Twyford was two tenths back, and Dowds again third, a little over half a second back from Twyford.
William Howarth was a three-time winner in the Rookie Minitwins, with a best of sixth in race two.
Hudson Cooper qualified on pole in the ACU Team Green Junior Cup and converted it to victory in the first race of the weekend, leading every lap bar one. The leader of that other lap was Henry McCartney, who finished second. The pair were in a league of their own, with third placed Travis Rooker 26 seconds further adrift. Daryn Busa was top Senior Ninja in seventh.
However, after causing a red flag in the early stages of race two, Cooper was absent from the final classification. That left McCartney to win a shortened restart from Rooker and the first Senior Ninjas finisher, Lewis Jones.
Cooper was back in action in race two, and came from the back of the seventh row of the grid to finish second to McCartney by four hundredths of a second. Jones was again third and Senior winner, just half a second off the overall win.
Alexander Mann took two dominant wins in the RevdCoin BMZRC 250 MZs, but after failing to complete a lap in the third and final outing, it allowed class stalwart Chris Kent to take his first win of the season.
Daryl Dance dominated the three TBR Performance BMCRC Thunderbike Ultra races to extend his perfect start to the season. On his Yamaha R1 he saw off James Fearn and Seamus McGlynn in race one, the trio spread out at the front ahead of a two-rider scrap for fourth that provided most of the action. It went the way of Tyler Donovan, who improved to third in race two, with Fearn again second.
Dance’s third and final victory was a closer-run affair, though he was still comfortable out front, winning by a second as Donovan and Fearn reversed their finishing positions from race two.
Darren Corkett won the opening TW Suspension Thunderbike Extreme race to halt Tony Russo’s perfect start to the year, though the early series leader was back on top of the rostrum in races two and three.
Russo dropped out of contention on the final lap of the race to deny himself a shot at another win. Behind Corkett, Shaun Wallis and Ian Ashby completed the top-three.
The blip behind him in race two, Russo rebounded to take the win, but only by a tenth of a second as Mark Biswell made a bid for victory. Corkett was back on the box in third.
The double was secured in race three, as Russo notched another win, while Corkett picked up another third place finish. Splitting them this time was Triumph-mounted Ashby, adding to his podium from race one.
The Thunderbike Sport class, sponsored by The Clothing Kings, had seen two winners split the honours evenly at Brands Hatch, but one rider bagged all the victories on offer at Oulton Park.
Joe White was in a class of one over the weekend, and he won from Adam Jamison, who in turn was 10 seconds up on Sean Gosling in third. Jamison was runner-up again in the second contest, but he was chased across the line by Shaun Wallis.
The podium trio were much closer together in the final race, less than a second the gap between all three, with Wallis and Jamison switching positions behind White at the front.
Saving the CB500 class this year is the Fyne Audio and SF Parts Thunderbike 500 class, and it welcomed a guest ride from Josh Owens, alongside his appearance in the MRO Powerbikes.
The Liverpool-native dominated qualifying and races two and three, but a DNF in race one left Finn Chalk to take the overall win and the C1 class win. James Llewellyn won the C2 class in second overall, ahead of fellow C2 runner James Cottenham, while the C3 class was won by Ian Carter in 13th.
Owens returned to leave everyone else in his wake in the remaining races, winning the C2 class in the process. Chalk was second in race two to win the C1 class, but absent from proceedings in race three. Third went to Alfie Davidson to mix-up the podium finishers, with Carter again the C3 winner.
Davidson improved to second in race two, with Llewellyn third to make it an all-C2 class podium. The C1 winner was Jake Kourti in fifth, the C3 victor Ryan Gregory in 10th.
All three wins in the TW Suspension Supertwins class were claimed by Fenton Seabright, whose greatest winning margin over the weekend was nearly 20 seconds. Trailing Seabright in all three races was James O’Mara, with Anthony Johnson taking two thirds, the other going to round one winner Jack Mur.
Not content with winning all three MRO Minitwin races, David Lindemann enjoyed a perfect weekend in the BMCRC Formula 400s. Craig Dance was three times second. Luca Wilkinson was third in races one and three, with Greg Marshall taking the bronze medal spot in race two.
After tasting victory in the final race at the opening round, following a trio of wins for David Ball, Alan Cooper collected 75 points from an available 75 in the DFDS Yamaha Past Masters, though each win was hard fought.
Ball was two tenths adrift in second in race one and Mark Haigh six tenths back in race two, before Haigh was again second in race three, this time two seconds back. Richie Welsh was third in race one, with Ball twice third in races two and three.
The BMCRC F1 and F2 Sidecars were in action at Oulton Park, and Phil Bell and Phil Hyde took two overall and two F1 class wins across the weekend. The other overall and also the other F1 victory went the way of Sam and Jack Laidlow.
Ryan and Callum Crowe took second overall and the F2 victory in race one, before Lewis Blackstock and Oscar Lawrence picked up the F2 spoils in races two and three with a best of third overall.