Lee Johnston maintains hot form at Oulton Park ahead of North West 200 return

The Ashcourt Racing Yamaha rider followed up his brace of runner-up results at Silverstone last month with another rostrum as Johnston maintains his impressive form with a week to go until opening practice at the North West 200 (May 10-14).

Dublin’s Jack Kennedy extended his lead in the championship with his third victory in succession on the Mar-Train Yamaha, taking victory in the Sprint race by 4.2s from Bradley Perie (Appleyard Macadam Yamaha), who squeezed out Johnston by 0.6s for second place.

Johnston, a Supersport winner at the North West 200 and Isle of Man TT in 2019, said: “When we came here before the road races the last time I thought, ‘I’m going to take it steady and be safe’, but it didn’t work out that well.

“So I went with a different approach and was just gung-ho and tried to get to the front, but I had a bit of a bad start and hit a false neutral into Shell and went down a gear too many, and had to come back – I think we were fifth or sixth, so it wasn’t pretty.

“I think if we could try and get away with Jack – I don’t know if we’d have the pace to beat him – but it would be nice to get away from the mayhem and try and go for it.”

Race winner Kennedy is now 19 points clear in the standings from Johnston, with Harry Truelove – fourth on Sunday – in third for Appleyard Macadam Yamaha.

“It’s a racer’s dream to get pole position, get the hole-shot and then control the race,” Kennedy said.

“It was an amazing race and to see a gap going up and up on the pit board was nice because I knew I could set that consistent pace.

“Massive thanks to Mar-train Yamaha because they gave me an amazing bike and I really enjoyed that race,” added Kennedy, who is aiming to make history with a fourth British Supersport title