It was another positive weekend for the NW200 Ducati team at Oulton Park this weekend. Michael Rutter on the North West 200 Ducati scored a fourth and seventh place respectively in the two Bennetts British Superbikes races on his Ducati F08. Team-mate John Laverty on the Buildbase NW200 Ducati gained a sixth and a strong win in the Daily Star Cup races.
Following an incident between Tom Sykes and Leon Haslam in race two, Haslam has been excluded from the second British Superbike race subject to a 'rights of appeal' from Honda. Therefore this promotes Rutter from seventh to sixth and John Laverty from 14th to 13th.
Rutter is now lying in joint third position in the overall Championship with only two points separating him and Leon Camier who is in second, with 20 races still remaining there is a long way to go and anything can happen. The 36-year-old rider from the West Midlands qualified in fifth position on the grid and was keen to repeat his results from Thruxton.
As race one at Oulton got underway the heavens opened causing a number of riders to crash into the first corner and forcing the race to be red flagged. It became a mad dash between the teams to change from dry tyres to wet in preparation for a complete re-start. At the end of lap one Rutter was lying in seventh position when Karl Harris crashed out in front of him causing him to lose valuable seconds on the leading pack. He had to dig deep and set his sights on reeling in Crutchlow and Sykes to a confident fourth place behind Shane Byrne, Leon Haslam and Leon Camier.
Minor set up issues caused Rutter to struggle slightly in race two, by lap eight he had fallen back to ninth place and was having to fight hard to ensure he gained a good result and some healthy Championship points. A crash on lap 12 involving Cal Crutchlow forced the race to be red flagged and because of the two thirds distance ruling, a race result declared. Rutter commented "I'm pretty happy with my first race result but I just had a few issues in the second race that I couldn't do anything about. I still managed to get two good points scoring positions and with the incidents today it's not affected my Championship position drastically. We have Brands next weekend and then straight to the North West 200; I'm joint third in the Championship and looking forward to improving that at the next round next weekend."
John Laverty who is still running on the Metzeler tyres in the Daily Sport Cup Championship, suffered with terrible grip problems during the first race, which was declared wet. After qualifying in first position (Cup) and 15th overall, he opted for the harder compound Metzeler tyre for race one and struggled from start to finish from lack of grip causing him to finish in sixth position in the Cup. Race two saw a totally different result for Laverty when he regained the form and promise that he showed at Thruxton and took a strong win in the dry race, extending his Championship lead in the Cup to 29 points from his nearest rival Chris Burns.
Speaking with the Ulsterman he said; "I was really unhappy with my first race result. After crashing yesterday at Lodge and destroying my number one bike I just wanted to ensure that I finished the first race. I had a nightmare with tyres and hopefully soon I'll be able to run on the Pirelli's and have more of a choice on what I can use. The second race, thankfully, was dry and I managed to take another win in the Cup which I was really pleased about. We go straight to Brands next weekend and with the qualifying already finalised I'm looking forward to racing at one of my favourite circuits."
Team Manager Ken Foley commented; "It's been a roller-coaster ride this weekend for the team but that is nothing unusual at this level. We are obviously very pleased with John Laverty's performance in the second race and he has now extended his lead in the Daily Star Cup, which is great news. Rutter has done a fabulous job for the NW200 Team this weekend, given the fact that we are still waiting for certain parts to arrive from Italy, which would have eradicated some of the problems that we've had to overcome at Oulton. We are now looking forward to Brands Hatch where we had two great days testing at the beginning of April, which has given us lots of useful data and information. Whilst the qualifying positions have already been set we know that we will be in good shape for the races."
BSB Race 1 Result: 1. Shane Byrne - Ducati
2. Leon Haslam - Honda
3. Leon Camier - Ducati
4. Michael Rutter - North West 200 Ducati5. Tom Sykes - Suzuki
20. John Laverty - Buildbase NW200 Ducati
Daily Sport Cup - Race 1 Cup Result
1. Steve Mercer - Yamaha
2. Chris Burns - MV Agusta
3. Leon Morris - Ducati
4. Luke Quigley - Suzuki
5. Malcolm Ashley - Kawasaki
6. John Laverty - Buildbase NW200 Ducati
BSB Race 2 Result
1. Shane Byrne - Ducati
2. James Ellison - Honda
3. Leon Camier - Ducati
4. Michael Laverty - Suzuki
5. Stuart Easton - Kawasaki
6. Michael Rutter - North West 200 Ducati
13. John Laverty - Buildbase NW200 Ducati
Daily Sport Cup - Race 2 Cup Results
1. John Laverty - Buildbase NW200 Ducati2. Luke Quigley - Suzuki
3. Chris Burns - MV Agusta
BSB Championship Standings 1. Shane Byrne - 95
2. Leon Camier - 56
3. Cal Crutchlow - 55
4. Michael Rutter - 55
5. James Ellison - 46
Championship Standings - Daily Star Cup
1. John Laverty - 85
2. Chris Burns - 56
3. Martin Jessopp - 51
Pictures Credited to www.moto-photo.co.ukWords by Carly Rathmell
