2022 British Superbikes Oulton Park- Race Results (1)

UPDATE: for his part in Jason O'Halloran's exit, after the race Peter Hickman was judged to hae 'caused an avoudable impact with another rider, which resulted in another rider falling, whilst you continued'. His sanction was a disqualification from the race result (4th place) a three position grid penalty for race two and two penalty points.

Bradley Ray was not troubled after losing the lead from pole and quickly got back to the front to dominate the sprint race at Oulton Park, round nine of the championship.

The Rich Energy OMG rider lost out to a near perfect launch by Jason O’Halloran from third on the grid. Tommy Bridewell wanted a part of the lead action and passed the australian at Shell Oils on the first lap.

Ray calmly kept in contention and pulled inside the duo at the end of the final lap.

Proving it’s not how you start but how you finish, the #28 remained ahead for the rest of the race, easing out a sizeable 2.765s gap at the line - as neither of his nearest rivals in the Showdown standings finished the race.

Though not as fast as in the morning when Ray set a new lap record in qualifying, he didn’t need to be, with hos rivals squabbling over second allowing him to pull away in the cooler, overcast conditions.

Tommy Bridewell did his best to try and keep the gap to a minimum, but was never going to catch Ray, leaving the Oxford Products Ducati rider to take second behind the Yamaha.

Wanting a piece of the podium leaves the McAMS bikes in the gravel.

Bridewell had enough work keeping clear of the battle for podium points, which saw both McAMS riders end their day in the gravel.

Reigning champion Tarran Mackenzie’s exit was all his own work, trying to make up the defecit in points requires podiums and after working his way to the front of the group chasing the leaders he attempted to do too much in one move, looking shaken after his fast fall from fifth.

Jason O’Halloran had done all he could to pick off as many points as possible as Ray steamed away up front. Hunting for second the Yamaha man was not prepared for Peter Hickman - who is not in the Showdown - to make a huge lunge for a podium finish. Making his move from too far back lead to contact with the Yamaha, which was destroyed as it went spinning through the gravel.

O’Halloran was unhurt physically, but mentally he was seething and had to be restrained trackside as he hung around, waiting to give Hickman a piece of his mind on the warm down lap.

Leon Haslam hed been in charge of the chasing group before the arrival of Mackenzie and that left him well placed to pick up the pieces after slowly doing most of the work to catch the bikes in front.

It is the former champions first podium visit since the last round at Oulton Park.

Fourth went to Hickman, with his late move on the FHO Racing BMW under review by race direction as the sprint concluded.

Glenn Irwin lost places from his ninth place grid start. The Honda rider worked hard to get back to where he started, then pushed forward for fifth in the run to the chequered flag.

Danny Buchan was over a second further down the track in sixth for Synetiq  BMW Motorrad, an improvement on his eighth placed start.

Lee Jackson was another rider going in the wrong direction early in the race but he too rallied to bring the Cheshire Mouldings FS-3 Kawasaki home in seventh.

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Christian Iddon made up places over the duration to climb from eleventh to eighth for Buildbase Suzuki.

Rory Skinner (Cheshire Mouldings FS-3 Kawasaki) and Kyle Ryde (Rich Energy OMG Yamaha) were the lowest placing of the Showdown riders to finish, in ninth and tenth respectively.

Josh Brookes was a distant eleventh, still an improvement on his 13th place on the grid with MCE Ducati. The equally experienced Tom Sykes was behind his team-mate in twelfth.

Danny Kent started the race down in 19th after not making it out of Q1 and worked hard to climb to 13th by the time he arrived at the chequered flag.

Tom Neave (Honda Racing) and Dean Harrison (DAO Racing Kawasaki) followed him through to complete the points finishers in 14th and 15th respectively.

DNF’s

The McAMS duo were not the only riders to fail to finish.

Storm Stacey’s race was over before it even started after he ran over the grass right at the start of the race. The Crowe Performance BMW rider kept going for a couple of laps longer before he became the first rider to enter the pits.

Ryan Vickers, who missed races the last round with concussion, didn’t see his return to racing last much longer. Liam Jeacock was next to exit, with Andrew Irwin dropping down the timing screens like a stone when his bike needed to be retired.

Oulton Park Statistics:

Qualifying:

1:Bradley Ray 1m 32.945s (new record)

2:Tommy Bridewell

3:Jason O’Halloran

Round Two at Oulton Park 2022

Qualifying:

Pole: Kyle Ryde

Race One: Bradley Ray

Race Two: Bradley Ray

Race Three: Lee Jackson

2021 at Oulton Park

Round One:

Qualifying:

Pole:Tommy Bridewell

Race One (sprint): Jason O’Halloran

Race Two: Jason O’Halloran

Race Three: Jason O’Halloran

Round Nine(Showdown):

Qualifying:

Pole: Josh Brookes

Race One (sprint): Tarran Mackenzie

Race Two: Tommy Bridewell

Race Three: Tommy Bridewell

Where does that leave the championship?

Unsurprisingly, with Ray winning and his main rivals out of the race he extends his total and lead comfortably.

Moving on to 1086 points he now holds a 38 point advantage over O’Halloran with Mackenzie an even more distant 55 points adrift after just one race.

Tommy Bridewell made gains to sit 58 points behind on 1028, with Glenn Irwin one point further back in fifth overall.

Their mixed fortunes see Lee Jackson and Kyle Ryde both 67 points behind Ray, with Skinner just a little further back to complete the eight taking part, 70 points adrift.