PBM Kawasaki’s Stuart Easton bagged his first MCE British Superbike win of the year in race two at Oulton Park this afternoon. He was able to take advantage of his team-mate Shane Byrne and Buildbase BMW’s Ryuichi Kiyonari mistakes, as they both crashed out, leaving the Scottish rider being able to cross the line to reach the top step of the podium after a five year hiatus.
JG Speedfit Kawasaki’s James Ellison and Milwaukee Yamaha’s Josh Brookes held firm to take the second and third spots on the rostrum, with the Kawasaki man now leading the overall championship.
Initially it was Easton who got the hole-shot from Kiyonari and Tyco BMW’s Tommy Bridewell, but going into Lodge Corner the Japanese rider had enough of trying to get past the wee Scot and scrambled to the front to take the lead. But Byrne was not down and out past Easton to go into third. Pole-setter Brookes was making up from a poor start and was up to fifth on lap three.
Byrne was on a hot lap and set a 1’35.007, breaking the lap record with 16 laps remaining. But Bridewell was not giving up the fight and passed Kiyo on lap four to take the lead, but his joy was not to last and the Devizes swearbox fell at Hizzys. He was fortunately unhurt and low-sided bringing out the yellow flags for a short time in that sector.
With Bridewell out of contention it pushed Byrne into third followed closely by his team-mate, Easton. Brookes was edging ever closer to the PBM bikes but went wide on lap six, allowing Ellison to slip into fourth and soon the Kendal lad had Easton as his next target.
With ten laps to go it was a five-way battle for the win, and Byrne decided to make his move on the triple-champ and it stuck at Lodge but Kiyo hit right back at Druids. Further down the field there was an eight second gap between the leading five racers and the battle for sixth. With eight laps to go it was Laverty who had the advantage over O’Halloran and Mainwaring. On the same lap Easton appeared to have had enough of his team-mate leading the way and overtook him to go into second.
But Byrne battled back and had the Buildbase backed BMW as his next target, and with four laps to go the quadruple-champ got into the front at Shell, but Kiyo and Byrne’s bikes touched at Hizzy’s and the front runners crashed out without being seriously hurt on lap sixteen of eighteen. With the two championship contenders out of the second race it put Easton firmly in the lead, followed by Ellison and Brookes.
At the flag Easton proved uncatchable and soared to the win with Ellison and Brookes completing the rostrum. Twelve seconds behind was Tyco BMW’s Michael Laverty had his best result of the year so far in fourth with Honda Racing’s Jason O’Halloran completing the top five.
Local rider Howie Mainwaring clinched sixth and out mustered Cooper and McConnell on the final rotations. Be Wiser Kawasaki’s Chris Walker and Buildbase BMW’s Lee Jackson rounded off the top ten. Crocked Bennetts Suzuki rider Christian Iddon was the final point’s finisher in fifteenth.
