BSB Oulton Park results, Race 3 - The emergence of a favourite?

British Superbikes resumes its 2023 season this weekend in Oulton Park. Three weeks on from an exciting opening round in Silverstone, the more ‘normal’ Oulton Park layout should bring more concrete information regarding who is genuinely strong, and who has work to do to get to the front. Check back to this page throughout the weekend for BSB Oulton Park results. 

Overview

Race 3 - Irwin makes it three winners in three races at Oulton

Race 2 - Late race superiority takes Bridewell to the top

Race 1 - Brookes continues strong form with win in disrupted Race 1

Qualifying - Brookes takes pole as Stacey impresses with front row

Free Practice - Hickman tops a first day interrupted by afternoon rain

Race 3

A win in race three for Glenn Irwin came after a closely fought group race which saw the #2 rider take the championship lead as the only rider to have won twodry races so far in 2023.

Before the start of the race, Leon Haslam was demoted from pole position to seventh. The six-place penalty came as a result of changing his gear ratios between Race 2 and Race 3. It seemed that the issue was that Haslam had to change his ratios because of a change in engine specification between round one at Silverstone and round two at Oulton Park. BSB rules state that each rider has to homologate gear ratios before the first round of the season, but Haslam’s necessary mid-season change of engine spec essentially meant his penalty was guaranteed, because the new engine requires different ratios.

From fourth on the grid, it was Andrew Irwin who made the holeshot, ahead of Glenn Irwin, while Josh Brookes and Leon Haslam had made good starts, and were third and fourth, respectively, although that order changed at the beginning of lap two.

Image credit: FHO Racing.

Apart from a change in leader, the Irwins changing places for Glenn to lead from Andrew, there was little change at the front in the first five laps. The group featured eight riders, stretching back to Christian Iddon.

Bridewell made his through on Andrew Irwin for third place at the beginning of lap nine, just as Glenn Irwin and Haslam were starting to creep away at the front. 

Andrew Irwin’s regression was eventually to the benefit of Josh Brookes and Kyle Ryde, too, and, although they were two seconds off the lead by the time they cleared the #18 Honda on lap 11, they were on the back of the leading group by lap 13. 

By lap 14, Brookes had begun to struggle, seemingly with rear grip, and that left Glenn Irwin, Leon Haslam, Tommy Bridewell, and Kyle Ryde to fight it out for the win.

It was Irwin who led onto the final lap from Haslam and Ryde, and a fantastic final lap from Irwin put him out of reach of Haslam, and he took his second win of the season, while confirming a second race weekend from two in BSB this year with three different race winners. Irwin's victory here distinguishes him as the only rider to have won two races in dry weather so far this year, and the #2 has finished on the podium in each of the last five races.

Haslam did enough to mirror Irwin, and not allow Ryde a sniff of taking second place on the final lap, while the #77 Yamaha rider took third place ahead of Tommy Bridewell in fourth.

Although his mid-race charge was strong, Josh Brookes faded in the final laps and finished a distant fifth, ahead of Peter Hickman (6th), Christian Iddon (7th), Lee Jackson (8th), Andrew Irwin (9th), and Jason O’Halloran (10th).

Full BSB Race 3 results from Oulton Park are below.

2023 British Superbike Championship (BSB) | Oulton Park | Race 3 Results

Race 2

Although there had been rainfall on Monday morning, Race 2 for the British Superbike riders began in dry conditions. Although the race started with a group, by the end it had devolved and dispersed, and in the favour of Tommy Bridewell, taking victory for the first time both this weekend and this season.

The holeshot was made by Peter Hickman, but he immediately crashed out, handing the lead to Tommy Bridewell, who led early on from Andrew Irwin, who made a good start from sixth on the Honda. Irwin was demoted to second by the end of the first lap by Kyle Ryde, who also started well from eighth place.

Leon Haslam was present once more at the front, too, and by lap five he had worked his way past Andrew Irwin and Kyle Ryde to take second place.

After seven laps, the front group started to stretch out. Bridewell, Haslam, and Andrew Irwin were breaking away from Ryde and Glenn Irwin behind.

Soon, though, it bunched back up. Glenn Irwin led the charge back to the front, although the only ride who could really get the hooks into the #2 Ducati was OMG Yamaha’s Kyle Ryde.

Image credit: OMG Racing.

The Irwins swapped places, Glenn taking third place, on lap 12. The time lost during their brief fight gave Haslam the space behind him to increase the pressure on Bridewell.

Bridewell pulled the pin on lap 16, setting his personal best lap of the race and extending his advantage to 1.4 seconds.

On the same lap, Glenn Irwin passed Leon Haslam for second place, but with only two laps to go he was too short of time to try to track down his PBM Ducati teammate, Bridewell, who took a relatively comfortable victory, his first of 2023.

Irwin made it a PBM Ducati 1-2, ahead of Haslam, who came out on top in a last corner duel with Andrew Irwin, who put the #18 Honda fourth for his best result of the season.

Relatively distant in fifth place was Kyle Ryde, ahead of Josh Brookes (6th), Christian Iddon (7th), Lee Jackson (8th), Jack Kennedy (9th), and Dean Harrison (10th).

Full BSB Race 2 results from Oulton Park are below.

2023 British Superbike Championship (BSB) | Oulton Park | Race 2 Results

Race 1

A Although the clouds remained over Oulton Park for the first BSB race of the weekend, the track was dry, and the riders were on slicks. The wet qualifying meant there were some riders out of position on the grid, but for Josh Brookes he ended it in just the right position, taking his second win of the season.

Josh Brookes made the holeshot from pole position, ahead of Storm Stacey and Leon Haslam, who traded places at Island on the first lap, as did Jason O’Halloran and Glenn Irwin behind, and the #2 was past Stacey for third by the end of the first lap.

Stacey drifted backwards in the opening laps, and, as he fell, the leading three escaped, Irwin two seconds clear of Peter Hickman by the end of lap three, and right behind Haslam and Brookes.

By lap five, though, Hickman had dropped Andrew Irwin, who was on his rear wheel on the leading Honda in the opening laps, and was closing in on the leading trio. The #60 topped practice, and now he was imposing his pace.

Hickman and Bridewell were the only riders lapping in the 1:34s during the middle of the 12-lap race, but Hickman had 2.6 seconds worth of better track position over the PBM Ducati rider.

On lap 10, Haslam appeared to begin struggling. Brookes had created a small gap in front of him, and the pressure behind from Irwin was growing. 

In a way, Haslam was saved on lap 11, because the race was red flagged for rain. On the other, it cost him two laps to try to find a way back to the wheel of Brookes, and past him. 

As it was, the victory went the way of Brookes, the #25 taking his second win of the season, from pole position, and while looking to be in relative comfort running race-leading pace. With Haslam in second and Hickman the fastest rider on track in fourth, it seems the BMW is the package to have in BSB at the moment, whether it is the 2022 bike that Haslam  is running, or the 2023 of the FHO riders.

Completing the podium was Glenn Irwin, starting the weekend off well on the #2 Ducati. He should be joined in the fight for the win tomorrow by his teammate, Tommy Bridewell, who will start Race 2 from pole position courtesy of setting the fastest lap in Race 1, on his way to fifth place behind Hickman, who might have made it a double podium for FHO without the red flag.

Andrew Irwin was sixth, ahead of Kyle Ryde, who finished seventh from 16th on the grid, and Christian Iddon in eighth. Completing the top 10 were Storm Stacey on the top-placed Kawasaki, and Lee Jackson.

Full BSB Oulton Park results from Race 1 at the second round of the 2023 season are below.

2023 British Superbike Championship (BSB) | Oulton Park | Qualifying Results

Qualifying

A pole position for Josh Brookes was taken in wet conditions at Oulton Park for round two of the 2023 British Superbike Championship, the Australian taking his first pole of the season.

Rain characterised Friday afternoon in Oulton Park for BSB, as there was only really any meaningful running completed, during FP2, in the final minutes of the session. On Saturday, for qualifying, it was somewhat similar, although the importance of qualifying compared to free practice meant there was no choice to be made for the riders about whether they would head out on track. 

Image credit: Mar-Train Racing.

By the start of Q1, there was no rain falling, and so it became a game of ‘last over the line’, to an extent. 

The big name in Q1 was the factory Honda of Andrew Irwin, but was comfortably fast enough to advance to Q2. He was joined in the Q1 top six by Luke Mossey, Charlie Nesbitt, Storm Stacey, Tim Neave, and Josh Owens.

Stacey was the rider who made the most advantage of his time in Q1. He qualified third, but was on provisional pole position for a while. Ahead of him were Leon Haslam and Josh Brookes, the latter taking pole position and confirming his positive feelings with the FHO Racing BMW.

On row two are Glenn Irwin, Jason O’Halloran and Luke Mossey; while Andrew Irwin heads up row three from Peter Hickman and Jack Kennedy. 

Full BSB Oulton Park results from qualifying at the Cheshire circuit are below. 

2023 British Superbike Championship (BSB) | Oulton Park | Qualifying Results

Free Practice

Times were tight from the outset in Friday practice for the BSB riders. Peter Hickman topped FP1 by less than a tenth-of-a-second ahead of Danny Kent, and by the end of the day one second covered the top 14 riders, which were led by the aforementioned Hickman.

Some major news coming into the weekend is the absence of Danny Buchan following his crash in Silverstone. That means the absence of the entire Synetiq BMW team, since they are a one-rider outfit this year, and for Buchan it is a major blow to his title chances with the removal of the points reset which came with the old Showdown format. 

Image credit: McAms Yamaha

Also missing from this weekend’s race is Ryan Vickers. Unlike Buchan, the injured #7 rider is replaced on the OMG Racing Yamaha team by Luke Stapleford. 

Stapleford rode the OMG Yamaha R1 for the first time at the Oulton Park test the week after Silverstone in anticipation that Vickers would be unable to make round two. He admitted on his social media to being “slow”, and the race weekend started mostly in that vein, the former British Supersport Champion ending FP1 in 19th place, 2.1 seconds behind the morning’s fastest rider, Peter Hickman.

In comparison, Dean Harrison was impressively fast on Friday morning. He was half-a-second off Hickman, and in seventh place, ahead of Glenn Irwin and less than a tenth’ behind Kyle Ryde.

A rain shower before FP2 affected the early part of the session. The times were 10 seconds away from what had been done in the morning, and the particularities of the track conditions early in the session meant there was little desire for many riders to head out. Christian Iddon explained for the official BSB Twitter account that “half the track is perfect, and half the track certainly isn’t.” Iddon said that the first part of the track was dry, but “you get to Island, Shell, and there’s a line but there’s bits of damp going across the line that you want to be on.”

Oulton Park has also been partially resurfaced in some places, which also created problems in the wet, as Iddon explained. “There’s some new patches of tarmac, which is awesome, but new patches of tarmac always take longer to dry because they just seem to hold the water a bit more. It’s also a bit harder to understand- when the tarmac is really dark [...] at speed it’s hard to understand whether it’s wet or dry.”

Iddon anticipated that there would be some hectic track action in the final 15 minutes, but there had been nothing with 10 minutes to go. 

In the final minutes of FP2, there came some lap times under 1:40, but Hickman’s 1:35.088 was never under much threat. The #60, in fact, was one of several riders who did not venture out at all in FP2.

Josh Brookes was the only rider to go faster in FP2 than he did in FP1, but his 1:35.442 did not move him up the standings at all, and he finished the day in fifth.

Ahead of Brookes were Hickman, Danny Kent, Leon Haslam and Tommy Bridewell; while behind the #25 and completing the top 10 were Kyle Ryde, Dean Harrison, Glenn Irwin, Jason O’Halloran, and Lee Jackson.

Full BSB Oulton Park results from Friday practice are below.

2023 British Superbike Championship (BSB) | Oulton Park | Combined FP Results

Lead image credit: Mar-Train Racing. 

2023 Suzuki GSX-8S Review | SV650 Successor Tested!