Brookes tops rain-hit Oulton Park test
Josh Brookes has topped the Oulton Park in-season test for Be Wiser Ducati.
Combined results from the BSB Oulton Park test
Josh Brookes has topped the Oulton Park in-season test for Be Wiser Ducati ahead of the second round of the Bennetts British Superbike championship as rain curtailed the afternoon sessions for the majority of the grid.
Fresh from the 2019 opener at Silverstone, the bulk of the BSB grid returned to action for the one-day test at the Cheshire track which hosts round two next month (May 4-6).
The Be Wiser Ducati rider, who was hit by three separate mechanical issues at Silverstone which denied him in qualifying and both races, bounced back strongly by topping both morning sessions at Oulton Park and set the fastest lap of the test with a 1m 34.929s which put him within half a second of the BSB race lap record.
Off the back of a podium from Silverstone, Danny Buchan maintained his front-running spot with second place on the combined times for FS-3 Racing Kawasaki ahead of Oxford Product Ducati’s Tommy Bridewell.
Christian Iddon found encouraging gains from the new Tyco BMW to end the test fourth quickest, despite losing effectively half of his track time due to rain showers in the afternoon, with fellow BMW rider Peter Hickman completing the top five for Smiths Racing.
Luke Stapleford grabbed sixth spot on the Buildbase Suzuki ahead of Luke Mossey on the OMG Racing Suzuki and McAMS Yamaha of Silverstone race two-winner Tarran Mackenzie.
With Quattro Plant JG Speedfit Kawasaki’s Glenn Irwin in ninth, Jason O’Halloran rounded out the top 10 on the combined times despite suffering a fall in the second session which cut short his testing plan.
Dan Linfoot, who topped both rain-hit afternoon sessions, completed the overall times in 11th for Santander Salt Yamaha in front of Keith Farmer (Tyco BMW) with MotoGP expat Scott Redding getting his first experience of Oulton Park in 13th place for Be Wiser Ducati.
Rookie Ryan Vickers claimed 14th on the overall times for RAF Regular & Reserves Kawasaki, in front of Dean Harrison (Silicone Engineering Racing Kawasaki) as Silverstone race one-winner Josh Elliott could only manage 16th place.
