Josh Brookes avenged his defeats by Ryuichi Kiyonari in the first two races at Oulton Park by storming to victory in race three. Once again, weather conditions made life difficult but Brookes was in a class of his own, beating Shane Byrne by 7.5 seconds with Dan Linfoot claiming his maiden BSB podium in third.
Brookes signalled his intent from the very first lap, pulling out a one second lead over Byrne, and he was never threatened from there. The Australian admitted he was desperate to end on a high after finishing second in each of the earlier races and was never going to let it slip.
“I knew I needed to get away as there was one real dry line and otherwise you would have to go off on the damp part to make an overtake. I tried really hard to get a good start as I knew I wanted to lead give myself the best possible chance. I had a massive lunge into the first corner and I was able to take the lead. Once I got there I was then thinking ‘how fast should I go?’ The first lap through Druids I didn’t have movement, but I had a sense of where the grip was and I wasn’t sure how hard to push. Once I got into it, I felt more natural and then there was some light rain. I waited to see lap on lap and fortunately it stayed dry so I kept pushing. Yesterday I didn’t relax physically, but I did slightly mentally and Kiyo came by and I didn’t want that to happen again so kept the gas on! I’m really happy with the win and now we can look at what we can do at Cadwell Park.”
After falling away from Brookes, Byrne fell into the clutches of a packed chase group which was being led by Dan Linfoot. The Quattro Plant Kawasaki rider briefly climbed to second after diving past Byrne at Old Hall but ‘Shakey’ responded instantly at Island bend and would not be caught for a second time.
Third was still a breakthrough result for Linfoot though who took his first ever British Superbike podium, putting one hand on a showdown spot in the process. Ryuichi Kiyonari set the fastest lap on the final tour to keep him honest but he could only manage fourth with Stuart Easton scoring eleven valuable points for fifth. Josh Waters was sixth for Tyco Suzuki ahead of Chris Walker and Tommy Bridewell who will both head to Cadwell Park in a fortnight in position of a showdown place having leapfrogged the injured James Ellison.
