Bemsee Premier 1000 racing blog: Jubilee celebrations at Oulton

Bemsee celebrated the Queen’s Jubilee in style by hosting the fourth round of the Team Respro Premier 1000 championship on the double bank holiday at Oulton Park.

We practiced and qualified on the Monday and had two sprint races on the Tuesday. Racing on a Tuesday? Very weird.

It was a packed grid, with 37 riders lining up to race on one of the best tracks in the UK, if not the world. Threading the needle through tree-lined, blind corners with big elevation changes on a fast 1000 is like no feeling in the world. The impression of speed is huge and your eyes are permanently on stalks.

Fellow BMW rider Barry Chapman was in fine form. After racing in National Superstock last year, he hasn’t turned a wheel this season, so to turn up to set pole, win the first seven-lapper and finish runner-up in the second six-lapper was impressive.

Another National Superstock BMW rider, Seb Bulpin, had two impressive rides with a win and a second, while Danny Fowler on his Honda Fireblade bagged two thirds.

I didn’t have the best of meetings, which is a shame as my BMW Park Lane S1000RR was perfect. I had no problems with the grip from my Dunlops, the bike was rock-solid-stable everywhere and it was much faster than me.

I ended up with two sevenths, but managed to keep a decent lead in the overall championship. I’ve never had a good result at Oulton, despite loving the track so much. You can’t win ‘em all, I suppose.

I won’t be dwelling on my results thanks to a busy month ahead. The next round at Cadwell is on the June 23/24 and I’ll also be riding my Beemer at the BMW Park Lane/Focussed Events trackday at Brands GP (another top circuit) on June 18 and at the Goodwood Festival of Speed at the end of the month. I’m also squeezing in a day’s instructing at the Ron Haslam Race School on June 25.  

On top of all that I’m in Italy this week with my MCN Road Tester’s hat on, riding various pieces of exotica, including the factory BMW superbikes and European superstock bikes at Misano… and tom Sykes’s factory ZX-10R at Aragon on the June 21. Not a bad June in store!

Neevesy