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Oulton Park, With its bumpy surface and tight bends, fantastic scenery and a nice group of people to enjoy it with! What more could you ask for? (To stay dry for the weekend of course!!) This is the track that is perfect to get a rough idea to set up your bike for to race in the Isle of Man. Friday 18th July Practice Day With most of the Super Stocker's arriving on the Friday to get some practice laps in before the big day on Saturday. That is bloody long drive, The weather warm and sunny with a bit of breeze but thank God it was not raining! Peter Young had some troubles with his forks, blew a fork seal, could not practice while he made an 80 mile round trip to pick up new seals, and had to wait until Saturday morning to test and qualify as well! Oh dear! Jeremy had a wee accident on Friday also, would he race Saturday? Malcolm was putting in some lap times as he went out for practice and improving every lap, uh oh! Neil Robinson didn't have much of a chance to practice either as his RC30 was having oil leaks! Will that be resolved? Steve Spencer, after working late on Thursday evening on his Harris to get to Oulton Park, was showing a much improvement! Phil Hogan was out on his RC30 and was also getting faster every lap, will this be a weekend full of more battles? Read on............!
Saturday 20th July The weather looking promising, and again the gentlemen had a nice few drinks the night before but weren't looking too bad! With everybody now arrived and up bright and early it was time to get to the qualifying........ Qualifying 15 minutes of qualifying was allocated, the lap times were coming down even more, the heat was on and blimey was it warm! Unfortunately Neil had still not resolved the oil leak and only managed to put in one lap, which would mean he would have to start from the back of the grid. Jeremy was back with just a few minor fairing scratches and unharmed. As this was a superclub meeting the big guns were back which meant the times they were putting in were phenomenal. But our boys didn't back down and still put in some great times. The grid positions were as follows, Peter Gisbourne on the 3rd row, Steve Spencer on the 5th row, Gary Skellett, Mark Ess and Jeremy Haywood on the 6th row, Malcolm Bate and Phil Hogan on the 7th row, Peter Young on the 8th row and Neil Robinson on the 9th row.
Nick Webb's VFR (96) and Peter Gisbourne's RC30 (92) ready for action
Race 7 The riders on the track, Neil had fixed his leak and was on the track. The race faces were on, the bikes were revving. Signal to look at the lights, hold it, hold it........go! The starts were much improved and they were all up there. Peter Gisbourne was there with the top guns giving them a run for there money! Steve was having a tussle with a Laverda, but no matter how hard he tried there was no getting past! We must learn the art of overtaking, I’m sure look, signal, overtake is not the right method. Phil, Gary, Jeremy and Mark were having such a battle it was very worryingly close! Who would get who at the end of the race, every lap it was different! Malcolm and Nick was also nail bitingly close and Malcolm was not going to let Nick past easily! Peter Young was gaining on the Buell in front and looking far more comfortable on his FZ every lap. Neil on the other hand was chewing up the field and spitting them out like there was no tomorrow, like a man on a mission, it wasn't even for points! What would he be like in the next race?! By lap 4 Nick had passed Malcolm and was starting to leave a gap between them, but oh no Malcolm clung to him like super glue! Steve was dropping his lap times every lap, almost a second faster each time he passed the start finish line! The last lap flag was out, who was going to be in front of who in the group which contained Phil, Gary, Jeremy and Mark, and then Neil who really was a man on a mission who had passed Malcolm and Nick! Chequered flag......... and would you believe it? No nor did I! The time gap between Phil, Gary, Jeremy and Mark was in total just one second, with Phil coming in on a race time total of 12:00:43, Gary on a total of 12:00:89, Jeremy on a total of 12:00:96 and Mark on 12:01:34. If that isn't close racing, I really don't know what it is!!! They finished in this order, Pete Gisbourne 1st, Steve Spencer 2nd, Phil Hogan 3rd, Gary Skellett 4th, Jeremy Haywood 5th, Neil Robinson 6th, Nick Webb 7th, Malcolm Bate 8th and Peter Young 9th.
Steve and his boys after the race "who just let one go?!"
The boys all stand around, waiting....... waiting, for that call to tell them to go to the warm up area to begin 5 laps of just pure hard racing!!!
Race 14 The almighty points race, the clouds had come over and that was something that no-body wanted! So all on the grid, what was that? Did somebody just spit on me? Oh dear God nooooooooooo, its rain! Can you believe it? What would the marshal's decide to do, send them in for a tire change? Nope they've put out a delayed start board, so it's not a heavy down pour then just a passing light shower! Phew! A Marshal on a bike went out to test the track and all seemed to be fine, no tire change then! Good! So a sighting lap and now instead of 6 laps it would be 5, mad dash time! They're on the grid, you can almost see the steam coming out of the crash helmets as they concentrate so hard to get a good start as not to jeopardize the points that they want! Signal to look at the lights, oh the nerves, the butterflies the adrenalin pumping, here we go......... Green, they've gone, Steve not having the best of starts and pushed back a few places! Oh no! whats the point of qualifying well when every start he just goes backwards, he might as well start from the last row! Pete Gisbourne has gone into the distance leaving the rest of the Super Stocker's to battle for second. Steve followed Phil into the new esses and as Phil over cooked it a tad and went towards the grass to do some grass tracking Steve very skillfully nearly went with him! That put Phil back a few too many places then he would have liked. As they came back round to the start finish straight it was Steve followed by Jeremy, Mark and Gary and Neil again eating the tarmac with his tire's as he made up ground. As they raced the foot pegs off their bikes it was getting close to crunch time, the final lap! But before we enter that lap lets look at Nick, Malcolm and Phil, well Phil was more than obviously on the pace to pick up the places he lost, but oh so closely behind was Nick who from this race on was no longer a novice, well done! No more orange jacket! Malcolm again was up his exhaust pipe. Peter Young was gaining seconds on the Buell in front, would he get him? The last lap flag it was now or never! Peter Gisbourne was round first on the tail of Julian Stock a big gun with a very quick Ducati! Steve managed to stuff it into the Laverda allowing him to get a march on, chasing the next Duke, getting past him at Lodge after he went in to hot, Neil was next round, it was side by side all the way,to the chequred flag, they had been fighting the whole race along with Mark and Gary, but Steve was totally surprised that the whole race he was not fighting with a Laverda or a Ducati but indeed it was the other Superstocks who were so desperate for the second place, not realising that they were so near up his backside, which he found extremely funny when he found out! It was Steve to the line first with the others as close together with again only 1 second between them! Fantastic! Phil, Nick and Malcolm battled it right to the line also, and with Peter Young coming round on the tail of the Buell, which he now had in his sights, if only there were two more laps he would have had him! Peter Gisbourne 1st, Steve 2nd, Neil 3rd, Jeremy 4th, Mark 5th, Gary 6th, Phil 7th, Nick 8th, Malcolm 9th and Peter 10th.
Championship Standings After Oulton Park
Well that was such a fantastic day, totally unbelievable so close in both races and so nail biting, it was a good run by all and every one was so happy when they came in, and that's what makes it all worth while! On to Castle Combe.................
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