Haslam second in race one at Oulton Park after “unexpected” pass

Leon Haslam had looked to have made all the right moves in the opening British Superbikes race of the Showdown round  at Oulton Park.

The Moto Rapido rider had done everything right at a track most familiar to the Ducati rider, topping Friday’s new PQ session and the morning FP3 session, before qualifying was an unexpected blip, with Haslam having work to do from 13th, but with the bravest of tyre gambles as Haslam explained:

“I knew me and Josh were on inters, the early part of the race was difficult, you know, starting 13th on the grid, trying to pass on wet/dry sort of track, and Josh was quite a bit ahead. Once we got to the back of him, I thought, okay, this is - my only race is him, and I think we were both fourth and fifth, and got to the lead and I pulled like, a two second gap. I thought okay, we’re good.”

• 2025 British Superbikes: Oulton Park (Showdown) - Race Results (1)
• 2025 British Superbikes: Oulton Park (Showdown) - Qualifying Results

With the #91 looking comfortable, the weather again played a part, with rain returning to shake up the final laps:

“And then it started to rain, and I thought I’d backed off too much, and basically then I knew Josh was coming. The board kept coming down - super fast.”

Haslam did all the things expected of a rider out front, but was not prepared for Brookes to think outside the box and pull a move at Brittens:

“I just tried to kind of keep it smooth - thought I did and covered all my lines, but where he passed was a bit unexpected, and yeah, fair play, he got it stopped and got it through and, yeah, frustrating we missed the win but happy to bring it home in second place.”