Tarran Mackenzie took a dramatic victory in the opening Bennetts British Superbike race of the weekend at Oulton Park, the McAMS Yamaha rider hitting the front for the first time on the final lap.
He took the win from the VisionTrack Ducati pairing of Josh Brookes and Christian Iddon but the big news was that championship leader and Mackenzie’s team-mate Jason O’Halloran crashed out of the lead with two laps to go to see his title lead slashed to just five points.
It was O’Halloran who grabbed the holeshot and led into Old Hall but Brookes nosed ahead going into Island and he led the field round at the end of the opening lap, O’Halloran in second followed by Mackenzie, Iddon, Lee Jackson (FS-3 Racing Kawasaki) and Gino Rea.
Front row man Ryan Vickers wasn’t there though having highsided from the RAF Regular & Reserve Kawasaki coming out of Druids, Danny Buchan forced to take to the grass on the Synetiq BMW and dropping from seventh to 14th as a result.
Lap two saw Iddon get ahead of Mackenzie and third time around O’Halloran was back in the lead only for Brookes to get ahead once more going into Hizzy’s. Mackenzie and Iddon also swapped places but Tommy Bridewell, meanwhile, was storming through the field and was already up to seventh on the Oxford Products Ducati..
The front five had opened up a 1.5s gap over sixth placed Rea after four laps but the Buildbase Suzuki rider was a faller at Shell shortly afterwards, promoting Bridewell up a place.
Back at the front and Brookes still led from O’Halloran but Mackenzie had regained third from Iddon with Jackson still in fifth, the quintet covered by just 0.6s. Bridewell was some 2.6s adrift now in sixth with fellow Showdown contenders Peter Hickman and Glenn Irwin following.
Half race distance and the running order was Brookes, O’Halloran, Iddon, Mackenzie and Jackson with Bridewell and Hickman having broken away from Irwin, Bradley Ray and Buchan.
Jackson was also falling back from the leading four riders and, indeed, starting the tenth lap, he was 1.8s adrift of Mackenzie. He, in turn, had dropped off the back wheel of Iddon slightly too and it now looked to be a three-horse race between Brookes, O’Halloran and Iddon.
O’Halloran took the lead at Hizzy’s on the 10th lap and Mackenzie clawed his way back to the leading group, just half a second covering them with four laps to go.
The championship leader was trying to make the break and had eked out a 0.25s advantage by the end of the 11th lap and whilst Iddon was trying to find a way by team-mate Brookes, Mackenzie changed the order as he moved up to third.
However, the following lap saw huge drama as O’Halloran crashed out at Knickerbrook and on the final lap, Mackenzie dived up the inside of Brookes at Hizzy’s, holding on for a dramatic win and cutting the gap to O’Halloran to just five points.
Brookes, Iddon and Jackson flashed over the line quickly afterwards, the latter regrouping well in the closing stages as just 0.396s covered the leading four at the chequered flag, whilst Hickman got the better of Bridewell to claim fifth.
Buchan fought back to take seventh with Glenn Irwin, Ray and Storm Stacey completing the top 10.
