Round 2 - British Superstock 1000 Championship - Oulton Park

Round 2 of the British Superstock 1000 Championship was held over the weekend at Oulton Park in Chesire. Oulton is an amazing circuit, very undulating and technically demanding. I've had some great success here in the past, putting it on pole and winning the Ducati Tri Options race in 2018.

The IN Competition Aprilia RSV4 was certainly going to be a new challenge for me, tackling over 200hp around this circuit. I've got a great group of people around me in the team and they go above and beyond to give me a fantastic bike and help me adapt my riding to suit the 1000.

We had two free practice sessions on Friday where I ended those in 8th and 10th. With 55 riders entered for the weekend, I'm happy that we are fighting toward the front, but our goal is of course so be even closer! I was working on some areas of my riding to help get the most out of the bike, and each time I get on it, I'm fine tuning this more and more to improve our pace.

We then had qualifying on Saturday. I qualified 13th which I felt I could have gone better but just didn't string a solid lap together when getting held up in traffic on some good laps. The times were close though as always, and finding a few tenths of a second would have got me in the mix with 6th place. The boys worked really hard and found some good ideas from going over the data of the bike. We can view suspension and engine data on the bike to help make informed decisions about improvements and changes we want to make.

On Sunday morning, the rain came down and changed the game plan slightly! The changes we wanted to try were no longer relevant in the damp conditions. But we have had some good wet tests already this year so I was excited to get a race under our belt in the wet.  Off the line, a rider in front of me spun out and I had to take avoiding action. I clipped his arm but fortunately avoided what could have easily been a major collision. How ever this send me back to 30th position on lap 1. I worked my way back a little finally crossing the line in 21st position. Of course this is not where we had hoped to finish. But looking at the whole picture, I have really struggled in the wet in previous years. This is by far the toughest championship I've ever taken part in, and we were able to fight out way back through a few positions. From what happened on the start line it was just about getting some experience on the 1000 in the wet and finishing my second race on a 1000.

We now have Donington in 3 weeks time. I'm really looking forward to getting back on the IN Competition Aprilia RSV4 and making further solid improvements. I must thank the whole team for their ongoing support and for having my back through all our results. And to my sponsors, in particular AJN Steelstock, who make all of this possible! Thank you to everyone supporting me, I'll continue working hard and giving 100%!