Oulton BSB: Jackson wins red-flagged chaos

Cheshire Mouldings FS-3 Kawasaki’s Lee Jackson won Sunday afternoon’s opening Bennetts British Superbike race at Oulton Park in what can only be described as a crash fest with four of the Showdown contenders – Jason O’Halloran, Tarran Mackenzie, Rory Skinner and Kyle Ryde – all hitting the deck.

Third for Bradley Ray though, behind second placed Tommy Bridewell – who had his own fair share of dramas – meant the Rich Energy OMG Yamaha rider extended his championship lead to 53 points. The initial race start saw O’Halloran (McAMS Yamaha) make full use of his pole position to lead into Old Hall although there was contact between him and Ray and the latter wasted no time in moving to the front, taking the lead at Cascades. Ray pressed on at the head of the field, leading by 1.2s at the end of the lap, but Druids was the scene of drama once more and in a near carbon copy of the previous day, contact was made between O’Halloran and Bridewell (Oxford Products Ducati) this time, with the Yamaha man again coming off worse and crashing out. Once the dust had settled, Ray was leading by 1.6s at the end of lap two with Skinner on the second FS-3 Kawasaki in second place ahead of Mackenzie (McAMS Yamaha), Peter Hickman (FHO Racing BMW), Leon Haslam (VisionTrack Kawasaki) and Bridewell. O’Halloran, meanwhile, had been stretchered away although he was soon back on his feet. Bridewell was given a ride through penalty for his part in the earlier collision but before he got chance to take it, Mackenzie crashed out at Hizzy’s with Hickman, left with nowhere to go, hitting the fallen champion. Hickman was unscathed and immediately went to check on Mackenzie with the red flag brought out soon after. The race was re-started over 12 laps with