Honda Racing UK, for the second time this year, makes the journey to Oulton Park, Cheshire, for round nine of the Bennetts British Superbike Championship and the first weekend of the new Showdown format, whereby more championship points are on offer.
Arguably one of the most challenging circuits on the calendar with its fast technical nature & blind crests, riders have to display absolute commitment at Oulton Park to be competitive. Earlier in the year, in what has been a challenging season for the Honda Racing team, Andrew Irwin secured the team’s best result of the year with a fourth-place finish, as he was pipped to the podium finish by just 0.1 seconds at the line.
Heading into this next round off the back of his best weekend racing a Superbike to date, class rookie Franco Bourne will be looking to continue his recent good form at the Cheshire circuit and bag himself another three strong point-scoring finishes. In his last race at the venue earlier in the season, and in just his third race on the Marvel HCL Motorsport Fireblade, he achieved his third Superstock podium of the year with a close-fought third-place finish.
Tom Neave too will be looking to continue his upturn in form and break into the top ten finishing positions once again after a positive home round at Cadwell Park saw him finish in tenth and eleventh.
Racing action begins with two Free Practice sessions on Friday 15th September, ahead of eBay Qualifying and the Bennetts BikeSocial Sprint on Saturday 16th. The weekend of racing then culminates with the two feature-length races on Sunday 17th. For a full weekend schedule click here.
54 Franco Bourne
I’m heading to Oulton Park without any pressure and I just want to go out and enjoy the weekend. The last round was a really good weekend for us, my best weekend on a Superbike at the most physical track on the calendar, and at a track that I thought was going to be my hardest. It was good to get those results when I know that there is more to come.
We had a really good race at Oulton earlier in the year on the Marvel HCL Superstock Fireblade, I led some of the race and came away with a podium, so I just want to get stuck in again. Oulton is another fast physical circuit, and after Cadwell when we had a test the day before too, I know that my body can do it, and my training is going well. I want to go out there and give the team another three strong results.
68 Tom Neave
I think we will have a pretty good weekend at Oulton Park all being well, I’d like to think we will continue where we left off after finding a bit of form in the previous round at Cadwell, and if we can carry that on into Oulton and the last three rounds we will have a good end to the season.
The goal is to extract the most out of myself in these last three rounds and finish the season on a high, everyone remembers the last three rounds not the first three. So my objective is just to get stuck in and make it happen. The last time that we were at Oulton I was on a development chassis, and since then we have developed the bike, gained a load of data and moved everything forward. I think going back now, near the end of the season, it will be a better bike for me and we will be able to do a good job. I am feeling fit and healthy and ready to go.
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