Oulton BSB: Haslam heads all JG Speedfit Kawasaki podium after race-one win

JG Speedfit Kawasaki’s Leon Haslam crossed the MCE British Superbike race one finishing line with a four second advantage over fellow team-mates James Ellison and Peter Hickman, to bag maximum points at Oulton Park.

It was the first time that a team have completed a rostrum with a one, two, three finish, creating history at the track this afternoon. Ellison finished in second to keep himself in Showdown contention, and third place finisher Hickman also remains a hopeful inside the top six.

Current championship leader, and pole-setter Shane Byrne went wide at Hizzy’s while in third and finished the first of three races in ninth, just behind Tyco BMW’s Michael Laverty, who is sixth in the overall standings.

Aussie Jason O’Halloran won the fight of the Honda Fireblades with him ending the day in fourth, with Dan Linfoot completing the top five, to keep his Showdown ambitions alive.

Buildbase BMW’s Richard Cooper, Quattro Plant Kawasaki’s Luke Mossey, Laverty, Byrne and Jackson made up the top ten.

Initially it was Byrne who got the hole-shot followed by a great start from Ellison who made his way to second from row two, and then went into the lead at Hislops with Byrne and Haslam in tow.

Most of the riders opted for the softer front and rear tyres, but Haslam went for the SC2 front and SC1 rear. Other’s decided to go with the softer rear and harder front, including Hopkins, Irwin and Linfoot.

It was not a good race for front-rower, Bennetts Suzuki’s Tommy Bridewell who had a massive fall coming out of Shell and his bike propelled into the air, while fourth overall. He was declared OK at the trackside.

Meanwhile further up the grid the battling trio broke away from Mossey, Hickman, O’Halloran and Laverty on lap seven of eighteen. But Haslam then decided to make a move on Byrne at Lodge to go into second.

But two rotations later Haslam made an almost similar move on his team-mate, Ellison to go into the lead with only nine laps to go. Byrne was chasing down the JG Speedfit Kawasaki pair but then went wide coming out of Hizzy’s and fell back to ninth, behind Laverty with four laps to go.

With Byrne looking likely to be out of contention for a podium it made it a JG Speedfit one, two, three, but Hickman had O’Halloran on his back wheel and hunting him down, but the ZX-10R rider held on.

FS-3 Racing’s Billy McConnell entered the pits with a technical problem. Be Wiser Ducati’s Glenn Irwin crashed with fifteen laps remaining at Lodge, but fortunately was able to walk away from the incident.

Bridewell and Irwin were not the only fallers as, Tyco BMW’s Christian Iddon crashed uninjured at Brittens, bringing an end to his Showdown ambitions. Elsewhere Dixon, Hopkins, Buchan, Parkes and Easton were the last of the points finishers.