NG Oulton Park - Race Review (2022)

Our opening event of the 2022 season was at our local circuit of Oulton Park, for NG Road Racing Round 1. On the day of departure, a special delivery had arrived - our 2022 Aprilia Racing RS660 Trofeo! Look out for further information on this in the near future. After unpacking the new machine, taking lots of photos - and making 'brum brum' noises - we popped it into the garage and then focused on racing our trusty "old" machines at the NG meeting.

​Despite usual best preparations, during the short journey to Oulton Park we managed to have our first hiccup of the year - when our caravan spoiler decided to depart company from the top of the caravan! We did keep our eyes peeled for it on the way home, but no joy - we've no idea when it disappeared!

​It was great to be back in the paddock after the winter break and it turned out to be a very social meeting! We managed to catch up with Albert Walker, Daniel Nurrish, Andy Boulton, Matt Sayle, Ian Mackman, Simon Smith, Joe Connolly and Jim Hodson. We also managed to introduce ourselves to Dave Hewson and Eric Wilson - and then bombard them with Aprilia RS660 questions!

This was a two-day meeting with a Friday test day and a Saturday race day. On the test day our aim was simply to get back up to speed, so we only rode the Supersport machine. We managed to blow away the winter cobwebs quite quickly and decided to wrap things up for the day after Session 4 - but then after going to spectate we decided to go out again in Session 6.

Plenty of riding time...

...and data collection!

​After being scrutineered and signing on, we performed final prep of the bikes for the Saturday race day and then went for track walk with Albert and Daniel. After the track walk, instead of making some dinner in the caravan, the Two Daves decided to pop to the bar/restaurant for some much-needed nourishment.

A beautiful evening for a track walk!

​A day of racing bikes in the sunshine is fantastic, but to do it in March is even better! The weather was beautiful all day. There was no qualifying for the race day - instead it was formed based on 2021 championship positions, then order of entry. For the Supertwins race we started from 25th on the grid and for the Open 600 race we started from 42nd on the grid. Grids for race 2 were defined by race 1 fastest laps.

Despite there being no qualifying, there were practice sessions so this allowed us to ride the Kawasaki Supertwin for the first time this year, which seemed a lot more unexcitable around the undulating Cheshire circuit than the Supersport machine!

Our first race of the year was Open 600 Race 1. Starting from the back of the grid we advanced rapidly and moved into top 20 by the end of the opening lap. From there we slowly caught and passed a few more riders, eventually crossing the line in 16th position. Our fastest lap of 1.49.804 was just outside our PB time of 1:49.763, which we were happy with considering we were using heavily-worn tyres.

​Next up was Supertwins Race 1. From the start of the race we experienced some issues with gear shifting. After identifying that it was the quickshifter not working properly, we worked around it. Another issue was that the clutch was slipping slightly. We battled through to the end of the race, then when the results appeared we were enthused to see that we had finished in 4th place and were circulating around 1 second slower than the race leaders. We thought that maybe we could be competitive in race 2, despite all of the issues encountered.

​After the lunch break we had Open 600 Race 2 where we started from a much-improved 16th position on the grid. We got a great start and moved into 13th position, then put in fast laps for as long as possible. The lap timer showed that we could have potentially set a new PB during the race - but lapped traffic started halfway through the 8-lap race and prevented us from completing a clear lap near the end. After being caught by quicker rider, we crossed the line in 14th position and bagged a couple of championship points!

​The final race of the day was Supertwin Race 2. Another good start (lets hope these become a recurrence!) meant that we kept our 4th place and kept the leaders in sight. We had a tussle on track with fellow Northwich racers Ian Mackman and Matt Sayle (who were sharing the track but were in different race classes) whilst closing the gap and we moved into 3rd position at the end of lap 3. By the end of lap 5 (of a planned 8 laps), we were only 0.5sec behind the Aprilia RS660 of Dave Hewson, who was just 0.6sec behind the Aprilia RS660 of race leader Steve Moody.

​At Shell Oils Corner on lap 6 we moved into 2nd place, then started to close the gap on the race leader... Unfortunately, going through Clay Hill on lap 6 the red flag was shown - which halted proceedings and set the race finishing positions as at the end of lap 5, meaning that we were classified in 3rd place. This was a great result and meant that we obtained our first trophy of the 2022 racing season. We also managed to set a new Supertwin PB lap time of 1:54.003 (and were set to be quicker on lap 6 - which is encouraging).

In 2nd place before the red flag (leader on yellow #42)

Leaving the circuit it was easy to remember why we love motorcycle racing so much. A day like today when you make personal advancements makes all of the time/effort/money invested seem worthwhile!  :-)

​Our plan now is to prepare the Aprilia Factory RS660 Trofeo so that it is ready to race, fit some new tyres to the Kawasaki Supersport machine and, erm, do some repairs to the caravan! The next race meeting is the Darley Moor Test & Round 1 on the weekend of 9th/10th April.
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