Hi All

You could say Oulton was a mega weekend for me, my first pole position and my first British Superbike double win, I couldn’t have asked for more than that really. I went to Oulton knowing the Airwaves Yamaha still wasn’t going to be running the trick bits and the bike was pretty much how it was run at Brands. I didn’t really know what to expect as Oulton is a pretty fast and flowing circuit and we weren’t quite sure what was going to happen.

During the first session on Saturday morning the Airwaves Yamaha once again felt great and it gave me confidence for how the rest of the weekend would pan out. We had a bit of a problem in the second session on Saturday, which only allowed me to do four laps. The boys got it fixed though and it was like brand new again on Sunday morning. We tried to do as many laps as possible just to get a good feel for the bike and a good set up for the circuit. As we headed into the Superpole session I knew I was capable of putting it on the front row and was eager to get started.

I completed the first two pole sessions on a race tyre and both times managed to set a really good pace and one that I was happy with. It was a bit of a last minute decision in the closing stages of the final session to run on a softer compound tyre. I left pit lane with a couple of minutes to go, managed to get some free track time and just got my head down. I didn’t have a great first sector but pulled it back in the final two to take my first pole position.

Race day, as predicted was wet for morning warm-up, we went out as I hadn’t ridden the bike in the wet so we needed to get a rough idea on a wet set up in case it happened to rain for the races. Again it felt good and I was ready for whatever weather was thrown at us, it was typical Oulton Park, raining, windy, dry, which left it a bit last minute on what to do with tyre choice. Luckily both races turned out dry so full slicks was the way forward.

It was all drama in the first race and after an average start I was lying in third place behind the two Honda boys of Easton and Harris. It wasn’t long before the race was red flagged due to an incident and the race was declared a full re-start. This time my start wasn’t as good and I had to fight my way through and on lap six I was looking for a way past Bomber Harris for the lead. I managed to pull about a second lead from Karl and took the first race win.

After a rain shower during the Supersport race the track became a lot slippery for race two and I got a really bad start and was boxed into the first corner. I secured fourth place into Hizzy’s on the opening lap and was just trying to settle into a rhythm but so was everyone else and the first few laps were a bit chaotic. This time I wanted to try and get to the front as fast as possible to avoid anything behind me. Once again it was Bomber I had to get past, which I managed to do into Lodge Corner. I just got my head down after that and wanted to put in some consistent race times and I managed to extend my lead to just over seven seconds.

It really was an awesome weekend and I’m mega chuffed for all the Airwaves Yamaha team, thanks again must go to Pete, Frankie and Jason for all their work and the rest of the Airwaves Squad.

Thanks to all the fans for their support, I saw a lot of Airwaves Yamaha clothing of the weekend and your support is much appreciated.

See you at Doni!

Cheers

Leon #2