BSB blog: Oulton a refreshing chane

Oulton Park and its changes of elevation in the glorious rolling Cheshire parkland will be a refreshing change after the flat, featureless and frankly tedious Silverstone.

It may host the British F1 GP – and the car crowd are more than welcome to the wide open spaces – but the only redeeming feature of the venue for bikes in my opinion is the pit facility with its huge garages which are pure luxury for the teams who even have to work out of temporary tents at certain venues.

The race-track is wide but rippled causing lots of set-up headaches and everyone to a man among the riders simply hates that chicane at Woodcote that’s so ridiculously tight it’s an insult to the name of Mickey Mouse!

The fans suffer most, being so far from the action that there’s nowhere that leaves you with your heart in your mouth as you watch you heroes absolutely on the limit – even though the riders so obviously are when you sit back and view the action on TV.

Oulton, on the other hand, is an adrenaline rush for the riders and fans alike. For the riders and crews the biggest challenge is taming their 200bhp+ bike enough to tame the monster wheelies that the undulations of the circuit promote.

For the fans there’s so many awesome viewing spots with Cascades, Deer Leap, and Lodge my personal favourites.

The first question I got walking into the office on Monday, the day after Kiyo’s double at Silverstone was a cynical, ‘are we ever going to see a British rider going to win a BSB race again?’

Well how about Oulton?

Rizla Suzuki tested there a week before Silverstone, primarily in desperation to get their wayward GSX-R1000 K7 handling sorted. They obviously achieved that goal, judging by Walker’s brilliant rides at Sivlerstone, but it’s also given the team a chance to get one step ahead of the rest for this Monday’s races.

Will Walker beat Kiyo or Lavilla?

That’s a huge question but I can see him getting on the podium – providing the bike does work straight out of the box on Saturday and he and team-mate Cal Crutchlow can get straight down to doing fast laps instead of going around the houses chasing a set up like they did at Brands and Thruxton.

It’s not just Kiyo and Lavilla that Walker has to worry about though. Leon Haslam is well overdue a good result. He’s had a dismal start to the season but actually, his Silverstone rides were pretty impressive considering how badly beat up he was.

Injuries like he had to his thigh would have put most sportsmen on the sick list for weeks but Leon munched a few pain killers and got on with the job.  And, if it hadn’t been for Shakey’s crazy move at Luffiled in race two he might even have gotten onto the podium.

You can’t discount Shane Byrne either this weekend. Ignore his disastrous Silverstone when he slid off in the first race at the chicane and then had that real ‘brain-out’ moment when he ran into the back of Haslam at Luffield. 

Instead look at pre-season testing and his strong rides at Brands and Thruxton. Shakey has the ability and the bike to run up front and he always goes well at Oulton.

Remember how he got of his sick bed last year to pull off two of the most inspired rides all year with the Rizla Suzuki?

Don’t discount him this weekend.

And then there’s Jonathan Rea and Leon Camier. They’ve both proved they can run with Kiyo and Greg. But can they pull of that first win at a track that’s as technical as Oulton. I’m not going to stick my neck out and suggest they will win races this weekend – but I wouldn’t bet against them, would you?