The previous weekend saw the British Superbike Series head to Cheshire to the Oulton Park circuit for round two of the 2014 championship.
During the free practice sessions riders experimented with the SC0 and SC1 rear compounds to ascertain which tyre would offer the best performance over the full 18 lap race distance, with many still undecided even until the morning warm up on race day.
In the first race the majority of the grid opted for the harder SC1 compound rear tyre, with only four riders including Chris Walker and Jakub Smrz using the softer SC0 compound. In the second outing only Chris Walker used the softer compound.
The first race saw Shane Byrne chasing a 4th British Superbike championship title hold off a strong challenge from Josh Brookes who set a new lap record registering a 1:35.411 on the penultimate lap, to take a narrow win in dry conditions with track temperatures reaching 24 degrees Celsius. Brookes finished just one tenth of a second behind Shane Byrne, who on lap 14 led by 1.6 seconds.
In race two Brookes and Byrne traded placed throughout the race with some safe but committed overtaking manoeuvers, with James Ellison joining them to maintain his 100% podium record this season. This time round Josh Brookes stopped Shakey’s winning streak by just 0.188s, putting him 2nd in the overall championship standings on 65 points, with Shane Byrne in the lead on 95 after two rounds of racing.
Following the Oulton Park round Pirelli UK Racing Manager Jason Griffiths commented:
“Track temperature dictated that the SC1 rear solution came to the fore in today’s Superbike races. Setting a new lap record on the seventeenth lap of the first race was a fantastic effort from Josh Brookes. The performance and durability of the new 17” tyres was really impressive. The DIABLO™ Supercorsa also played an important role this weekend with new lap records set by Alastair Seeley in Supersport; Danny Buchan in Superstock 1000 and Andy Reid in Superstock 600. All in all a very satisfying weekend for the Pirelli team.”
