By Dan Moakes
June 19 2014

Shane Byrne had been the man up front at Brands Hatch at the start of the 2014 British Superbike Championship, but there were signs that he wouldn’t have it all his own way as he targeted a fourth BSB title. Round two was taking place at the exciting Oulton Park circuit.

Following on from the Easter weekend, the Superbikes were in action again on the May Day Bank Holiday, and after two races at Brands the top of the points table was primarily about men on Kawasaki machinery. There were the Rapid Solicitors bikes of Byrne and Stuart Easton, the Lloyds British GBmoto bikes of James Ellison and Chris Walker, and also Ben Wilson was in there just behind the first Yamaha on his Gearlink Kawasaki.

In qualifying at Oulton there were four Kawasakis in the top five, and another four within the top twelve. One of these belonged to ninth-placed Walker, despite the fact that an earlier crash during practice had caused a fuel spill that led to a dramatic fireball. Somehow the team gave him a machine to ride that got him onto the third row of the grid. Team-mate Ellison was on the front row in third, but pole position went to Byrne, with the other Paul Bird machine of Easton fourth.

Byrne’s closest challenger was second placed Josh Brookes on the Milwaukee Yamaha, the man who’d taken pole at Brands and second place in race two, and who therefore sat within the leading championship group after that meeting. Tommy Bridewell, the team’s other rider, had taken sixth position. Other leading Kawasakis were those of Quattro Plant rider Dan Linfoot (fifth), Anvil Hire TAG rider Richard Cooper (eighth), PR Racing rider Keith Farmer (P11) and Tsingtao WK rider Jon Kirkham (P12).

The first of the BMW bikes on the grid was that of Buildbase-backed Ryuichi Kiyonari, seventh; and there was a Ducati Panigale in tenth, ridden by Millsport team rider Jakub Smrž. None of the machinery from either Suzuki or Honda had made it into the leading positions.

Oulton Park
Form guide: BSB wins
Ryuichi Kiyonari · 2005 (x2), 2006 (x2), 2007 (x2), 2010 (x3), 2011
Shane Byrne · 2003 (x2), 2008 (x2), 2012, 2013 (x2)
Chris Walker · 1997, 2000, 2012
Michael Rutter · 1998, 2002, 2005
Stuart Easton · 2009, 2010
John Hopkins · 2011
James Ellison · 2013
Josh Brookes · 2013

The start of race one saw the order from the front of the grid unchanged as Byrne led Brookes, Ellison and Easton, but with Walker up to fifth. Beyond the first right-hander at Old Hall Corner, the race got as far as the next section, The Avenue, before riders came to grief. Simon Andrews on the RAF Reserves Honda crashed, with others including James Westmoreland (Buildbase BMW) having to take avoiding action. It meant a Safety Car situation.

The re-start saw Ellison pass Brookes for second on the inside at Old Hall, with Walker also making an early move on Easton, and with Linfoot soon to follow suit. Bridewell was seventh, from Cooper and Smrž. The first four began to get clear of the next group, with Byrne heading Ellison, Brookes and Walker, and this prompted Easton to re-pass Linfoot at Old Hall. Soon after, Walker came to grief with a crash on the exit of the right-left-right Knicker Brook chicane, also known as Hizzys.

This left a three-man leading group, with Kiyonari joining on at the back of the next group of four after Smrž had dropped behind. Bridewell passed Linfoot at the final right-handed Lodge Corner for fifth, and the next move saw ‘Kiyo’ pass Cooper at Old Hall for seventh. Ninth man Smrž headed Farmer, Michael Rutter (Bathams BMW), John Hopkins (Tyco Suzuki), Kirkham and Wilson.

Leader Byrne was starting to edge clear of Ellison and Brookes, but the order changed when James made a mistake at Hizzys, running on over the grass beyond the first apex, and rejoining the circuit in third but now a bit out of touch. Shane continued to increase his advantage, but in the later stages of the race Josh started to close him down. With a new fastest lap, the Yamaha man was just 0.5s back going into the last lap, and by the time they got round to Lodge he was right behind, but unable to try a move, so that Byrne won by 0.1s. Ellison retained third.

Fourth place had been between Bridewell, Easton and Kiyonari, with the Japanese rider putting in some fast times and passing Stuart on the inside at Lodge. With Kiyo pressurising Tommy for the position, Easton ran wide on the right-hand banked loop at Shell Oils Corner, losing ground. Sure enough, Kiyonari passed the Yamaha for P4 at Lodge, but not long after that he was out with mechanical problems.

Therefore, Bridewell was fourth and Easton fifth, with Linfoot just heading Cooper for sixth. There had been some changes behind, so then it was Westmoreland, Kirkham, Smrž, Rutter, Martin Jessopp (Riders BMW), Josh Waters (Tyco Suzuki), Patric Muff (Bathams BMW) and Wilson. Farmer and Hopkins had both retired.

The new grid positions for race two saw Brookes on pole, from Byrne, Kiyonari, Ellison, Bridewell, Westmoreland, Walker, Easton, Cooper, Linfoot, Hopkins and Smrž. Brookes headed the Kawasakis off the line, with Ellison, Byrne, Walker and Easton on his tail, then team-mate Bridewell, and with Byrne quick to move up to second. Walker followed him, squeezing past on the inside of Ellison at Shell Oils. But with the first two looking to pull clear, James soon returned the favour on the inside at Old Hall.

The victory would be disputed by Brookes, Byrne and Ellison, leaving Easton to pass Walker for fourth at Old Hall, with Bridewell sixth and then Kiyonari and Linfoot. However, Kiyo’s challenge was blunted yet again when the BMW slowed and he had to pull off. The next change among these riders saw Bridewell pass Walker for fifth. Meanwhile, Farmer and Cooper (from eighth) would soon be out of the race, the latter with a crash at Hizzys.

By this stage there had already been plenty of action amongst the leaders, with Byrne having taken the lead from Brookes on the inside through the fast left-hand Island Bend. Following the Shell Oils hairpin, Josh had quickly got back ahead at the left-right-left Brittens chicane, where he squeezed through in an impressive move on the inside at the right-hand apex. Ellison had then closed in on Byrne, and would get past going into Hizzys. However, soon James would go wide at the fast right-handed Druids Corner, resuming in third but no longer quite in touch.

That left Brookes and Byrne to dispute victory once again in the final stages, with ‘Shakey’ applying the pressure. A moment out of Druids for Josh was not enough for the Englishman, who would challenge again along the Lakeside section, before Island. On the last lap, Shane got good drive out of the descending left at Cascades and tried again at Lakeside, with the Yamaha man holding him off. Brookes took a sufficiently defensive approach from there to the flag and secured the win.

Ellison took third place once again, comfortably clear of former team-mate Easton in fourth. Then it was Bridewell, from Westmoreland, Linfoot, Walker, Hopkins (first of the Suzukis in ninth), Kirkham, Smrž, Rutter, Waters, Jessopp, Muff, Wilson, youngster Harry Hartley (Halsall Kawasaki) and Barry Burrell (WD40 Kawasaki).

After failing to finish the first race of the year, Josh Brookes scored vital points at Oulton Park with his first win as well as a second place, but it was still the three-time BSB champion Shane Byrne in a comfortable lead after only his first defeat in four races. James Ellison maintained consistency and was therefore on the tail of Brookes after the meeting, whilst Ryuichi Kiyonari had shown some of his old form until the gremlins intervened. But is there really anyone in the field who can overhaul the wily Byrne this year?

Standings after four races: Byrne 95; Brookes 65; Ellison 64; Easton 44; Bridewell 40; Walker 39; Westmoreland 33; Linfoot 32; Hopkins 23; Wilson 20.
podium credits: Byrne 11, Brookes 7, Ellison 4, Walker 2.