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

The first race of the British Superbike championship 2025 season went to Bradley Ray, who obliterated the opposition from lights out to control the race from the front at Oulton Park.

Launching from pole, the Raceways rider was confident on new tyres and immediately pulled out a visible gap. That was only extended by a new in-race lap record, with the gap at one point over five seconds.

Second place changed hands, but none of the riders behind were able to give chase, with the gap only coming down as the Yamaha man managed his race from the lead, crossing the line 1.937s ahead of the rest.

Initially it was Ray’s old teammate that gave chase from the front row, before Haslam took up the mantle. The Moto Rapido had company from fellow Ducati rider Glenn Irwin, who had stormed through the pack from 14th on the grid.

• Leon Haslam tops BSB practice: “Always a doubt” Ducati would “suit my style”
• 2025 British Superbikes: Oulton Park- Qualifying Results

Irwin endured  a weekend to forget leading up to race one. The Hagar Ducati rider had issues in practice, scraping into Q2 late on, where a crash left him without a time, placed last in the session.

Calling on previous form at Oulton - Irwin completed a triple win at the first visit to the circuit in 2024 - the #2 wasted no time in moving forward and was next to old rival Tommy Bridewell after lap one. Irwin was not done with his forward march and soon moved through the mid pack battles with ease to hit sixth by lap nine.

A fading Danny Kent was next to fall behind, leading him to the chasing group. Ryde also looked to be struggling with grip, with Irwin in the top three come lap thirteen.

Haslam also being on a Ducati made the final pass harder, coming on the penultimate lap courtesy of his own personal best lap for Irwin, to complete a huge salvage job from the PBM rider, handing him the chance of a much improved front row start for Sunday’s sprint race.

Haslam held on for the final podium place, now clear of Stacey, who had his own impressive recovery run after qualifying down in eighth, a much improved fourth on the Bathams AJN Racing BMW.

Ryde was close behind in fifth after some great racing with Stacey over the last laps, taking the chequered flag at the back of the chasing group for OMG Nitrous Competitions Racing.

Starting eleventh Bridewell’s turnaround wasn’t as huge as Irwin’s but the Honda Racing UK rider did enough to move up to sixth at the front of the next group to hit the finish.

Charlie Nesbitt was a close seventh for MasterMac Honda, in turn just ahead of eighth placed Lee Jackson, the top DAO Racing rider after his early overtake on his teammate Josh Brookes who could not find a way back past, leaving him ninth.

An early frontrunner in the race, Danny Kent faded back to tenth on the McAMS Yamaha.

Rory Skinner was moving in the right direction, to finish eleventh for the Cheshire Mouldings team, now using Ducati machinery.

There was clear track back to top rookie, twelfth placed Scott Swann for Send My Bag Racing by IWR Honda, who was in turn holding his own advantage over Peter Hickman who moved up to 13th in race trim on his own LEW 8Ten Racing BMW Motorrad, continuing to get to grips with his new machinery.

Fraser Rogers was 14th for TAG Honda, while behind John McPhee picked up enough positions to claim a point on his first BSB outing, with MasterMac Honda.

Richard Kerr had held the position but was raced out over the final laps by the Scottish rider, leaving him and the late addition Michael Laverty run Rokit BMW team 16th.

Official British Superbike Oulton Park Records:

Old Lap record: Bradley Ray (Yamaha, 2022) 1m 33.620s
New Lap record: Bradley Ray (Yamaha, 2025) 1m 32.851s

Oulton Park in 2024:

Race 2:

Qualifying: 1 Ryde (2 G Irwin, 3 Vickers)

Race 1: 1 G Irwin (2 Iddon 3 Ryde)
Race 2: (Sprint): 1 G Irwin (2 Bridewell, 3 Iddon)
Race 3: 1 G Irwin (2 Iddon, 3 Vickers)

Race 9 (Showdown):

Qualifying 1 O’Halloran (2 Cook, 3 Stacey)

Race 1:  1 Ryde (2 G Irwin, 3 Jackson)
Race 2: (Sprint): 1 G Irwin (2 Kent, 3 Haslam)
Race 3: 1 Ryde (2 Bridewell, 3 Stacey)

Crashes, Injuries and Replacements

Both of the AJN Steelstock riders crashed out of contention.

First out was Max Cook. After qualifying fourth a good start saw Cook up to third and looking for a way around Ryde, then second. That push saw him slightly wide on lap two on the approach to Shell Oils and sliding out of contention.

His teammate Christian Iddon had already run through the chicane at Hizzy’s - his troubles got worse when he fell at Lodge on lap eight.

Davey Todd retired with a technical issue around the same time.

There were only 24 riders on the grid after Andrew Irwin picked up a shoulder injury following his qualifying fall and was withdrawn ahead of race one.

Lewis Rollo didn’t get started after not passing his assessment with the BSB Medical Team.

Championship Standings

With just one race completed the standing reflect the race result - Ray picked up the maximum 18 points for a win, with a two point advantage over second placed Glenn Irwin. Third sees 14 points go to Haslam.