Oulton Park - Toselands take on Bennetts BSB

I’m watching with great interest the effect that the weather is having on motorcycle racing this year. As you probably already know, I was a victim of the changeable British weather at my first ever home GP last month. Four crashes in one weekend including one on the first corner of the race, is totally uncharacteristic and made the British GP my worst of the year so far.

With that in mind, I have a huge amount of respect for the Bennetts BSB riders who have been able to perform consistently well this year despite the range of weather that has been thrown at them. We’ve seen everything from sun and gale force winds to rain and snow.

The rain at the last event at Mallory Park definitely brought surprise results and, as I predicted, Michael Rutter put in a much stronger performance at the circuit he used to live just five minutes away from. A race win was a fantastic achievement for him and the team and should be a great confidence boost for him at the midway stage of the season.

Round seven of the Bennetts British Superbike Championship should be interesting because it’s the first time in the season that the series returns to a track that the riders have already raced at this year. The first time of asking saw a really strong performance from Airwaves Ducati and a double victory for Shane ‘Shakey’ Byrne. However, James Ellison also impressed with a second-place finish so it will be interesting to see if he can go one better with a victory this time round.

Shakey will be keen to get back to the top step of the podium after a difficult second race at Mallory Park a few weeks ago so we should be in for two exciting Bennetts British Superbike showdowns. It’s a crucial weekend for title contenders to ensure that Byrne doesn’t extend his advantage at the head of the standings too much further.