British Superbike Championship 2005 - Round 11 - Oulton Park

Leon Haslam set the free practice pace ahead of the double race eleventh round of the Bennetts British Superbike Championship at Oulton Park where the title chasing trio of Gregorio Lavilla, Michael Rutter and Ryuichi Kiyonari had fluctuating fortunes.

Riding the Airwaves Ducati, Haslam was always on the pace, but he saved the best for last, putting in two consistently fast laps on the drying Cheshire circuit, at the end of the afternoon session to line himself up for a repeat of his success of earlier in the season.

“I enjoy the circuit and proved that by winning here – I was quick in both races and could easily have won them both then. I am feeling very comfortable on the bike, am performing well and will be pushing for race wins,” said Haslam, who is currently fourth in the rankings, but out of the title chase.

His late speed, with a best lap of 1m 37.344secs, an average speed of 99.55mph, headed off the determined challenge of former three times British Supersport Champion Karl Harris by almost half a second, with Rutter, the fastest of the three in contention for the crown, third fastest.

The HM Plant Honda rider goes into these races determined to overturn the two points deficit he has on Lavilla. Rutter, who lost the lead with a tumble in the Holiday Monday round at Cadwell Park, is approaching these races as though they are the start of a new campaign.

“There is everything to play for – I need to treat the rest of the season as a new one and concentrate on making sure that I am back up front in every race to regain the lead in the title,” said Rutter.

Gary Mason, Stobart Honda, and reigning champion John Reynolds, on the Rizla Suzuki, were only marginally slower than Rutter on a day of struggle for the exciting 22 year old Japanese rider Ryuichi Kiyonari, who was outgunned also by James Haydon, Tommy Hill – a winner at Cadwell Park, Dean Thomas and Steve Plater.

Kiyonari, seven points down on Rutter, found himself back in eleventh place, with a best lap of 1m 38.879s, commenting: “this is the most difficult part of the season for me – Michael is strong here and will be hard to beat but I will be trying hard.”

Sean Emmett nosed ahead his Virgin Mobile Samsung Yamaha ahead of Lavilla, who had to settle for a distant thirteenth on the leaderboard – he concentrated on both learning the circuit, and ensuring his Ducati is well set for the races, as he adopts a similar strategy to that of Rutter.

“It is of course good to be ahead, but it is by only two points – I am not thinking of the championship. I did well here earlier in the season, but these final rounds are like starting from zero and we will all be trying our hardest,” said Lavilla.

British Superbike Cup contenders Steve Brogan and James Buckingham came close to matching the Spaniard’s best time.

Rizla Suzuki Report

John Reynolds was fifth and James Haydon seventh fastest on their Rizla Suzuki GSX-R1000s after today's practice for the 11th round of the British Superbike Championship at Oulton Park.

The morning's 50-minute practice was held in wet conditions and the afternoon's session started damp but ended dry, allowing both Rizla Suzuki racers to gain valuable set-up time on their bikes.

Reynolds ended the session eager to make more progress tomorrow. He said: "We started today with the same fork settings as the last round at Cadwell Park and my bike didn't feel planted through the corners. We made a change to the fork springs and immediately I was much happier and able to run a fast lap time.

"We feel we can improve the fork settings a little more and I'm sure we can cut the lap times tomorrow. I just hope the weather makes its mind up and is either full wet or dry."

Haydon found a comfortable setting on his Rizla Suzuki at Cadwell Park two weekends ago and he used that as a starting point in practice. He made changes to the front and rear suspension to suit the flowing nature of the 2.69-mile circuit and was then able to record consistently fast laps that put him in the top four on the time sheets. With 10-minutes to go he tested his spare bike and was relegated to seventh by the chequered flag.

"By the end of the Cadwell Park round I was delighted with the feedback from my bike and was able to push to the limits," explained Haydon. "The Cadwell settings did not translate exactly to Oulton Park so we've made a couple of minor changes to the suspension and ended the day with a good, fast bike.

"There are still improvements to be made on my Rizla Suzuki and if we can find a little more rear-end feel tomorrow then it's going to be a very interesting couple of races on Sunday."

Team Technical Consultant Dave Marton said: "The wet weather cut our testing time in half today by soaking the first session. The afternoon was dry though and we made some very rapid progress on both sides of the garage.

"Both JR and James were quick on race tyres today and are in positive frames of mind, keen to get back on track and to keep improving. We are quick enough for the second row today and we will want to improve on that during qualification tomorrow."

Dean Thomas

"It's been a good day today here at Oulton today as far as bike set up is concerned, as for the weather well that’s somewhat to be desired! We're at round 11 of the British Superbike Championships and after this round there are only two more rounds left. Can't believe how fast the season has gone, but I've certainly learnt a lot over the last six months.

"The weather here once again was miserable but we've still managed to go faster than what we did here back in May which is certainly progress. We're moving in the right direction and I've been told that the weather is supposed to brighten up over the weekend but I'm not so sure!

"The circuit was very patches today with some dry bits, some damp bits and some wet bits. We made a few changes to the bike but nothing drastic and hopefully we will be able to get a good race set up and race pace in tomorrows qualifying sessions.

"Oulton is certainly one of my favourite tracks and it'd be great go get another set of confident results here."