Round Ten. Wet and windy. Oulton Park Cheshire.

After a record-breaking summer of sunshine, high temperatures and drought conditions, the grass was green again as we set up for the penultimate round of the 2025 British Superbike Championship. More rain was on the way, courtesy of Storm Amy. Mind, we don’t mind a bit of wet after Christian’s brilliant lights to flag victory in race two at a very wet Assen, last time out.

Oulton Park is a spectacular venue for the fans to watch superbikes in high-speed action over the rises and dips and through the chicanes. Christian and Max go well at Oulton, as do our AJN Steelstock Kawasaki ZX-10RR Ninjas. Christian was in the hunt for a big points haul as he’s only 40 points behind Haslam for P3 in the championship standings. Max keen to finish off his season with two strong rounds.

We also had a big announcement to make about our plans for 2025, so read on!

Testing and pre-qualifying

The other big news for the weekend was the series organiser introducing a new format for the day one. Instead of two free practice sessions which count towards the qualifying top 12 cut and with limits on tyre usage, a new non-competitive element has been introduced. On Friday morning there would be one hour of free testing where tyre use is open - part worn or new tyres as you like - giving time for proper testing without undue pressure and in safety-controlled conditions. Then, in the afternoon, there would be a further hour - the first 30 minutes for more free testing and then 25 minutes constituting ‘pre-qualifying’, this time with tyre use controlled, to establish the 12 fastest from the rest and straight through to Q2.

The new format really helped as the morning’s soaking wet conditions using worn tyres was a much better starting point for the weekend than having to push in very challenging conditions. Christian P3, Max P6.

By the afternoon the rain had intensified and with the organisers looking for a gap in the downpour, the riders went out for their final testing runs mid-afternoon in the gathering gloom - run time reduced to 20 minutes. In the event, Christian didn’t bother, waiting instead for the following pre-qualifying session as conditions appeared to be improving. Max went out for just six laps circulating well off the pace as all he wanted to do was check out the conditions and if there was standing water to avoid.

Pre-qualifying was the the first genuinely competitive run of the weekend. With conditions slowly improving all the faster laps came over the closing minutes of the session. Max completed eight laps and put up his fastest time on his final tour, 0.7 off the best time for a creditable P9. Christian, our in-house rain master, built up his pace and with a lap to go had recorded the fastest time, only for Haslam to cross the line to relegate Christian to P2 by just 0.080 of a second.    

Qualifying

The heavy rain returned in the morning, pushing back the 10-minute FP3 warm up to just before the actual qualifying runs. Christian and Max sat it  out with nothing to be gained and always the risk of an incident. For the main Q2 run the track was wet throughout but at least the rain had stopped. A 15-minute end to end run for Max eventually overheated his rear tyre giving him grip issues and consigned him to a less than ideal P11. Christian came in for a quick tyre change which helped him to secure a second-row grid slot, P6.

Race one

Dry track by late afternoon in time for the 18-lap feature race. All on dry weather slick tyres but as the race got underway a short shower crossed the circuit and the reg flag halted proceedings as it had been a declared a dry race. (If it’s declared a wet race before the start the race goes on as it’s up to you to choose the correct tyres for the conditions).   Quickly drying, the restart was declared dry over a shortened distance. Then there was another shower while everyone was on the grid, so the teams were given 10 minutes for another round of set up and tyre change. Finally, the race got underway over 14 laps. Max chose a wet weather front tyre and a heavily treaded intermediate rear tyre. Christian wet front and rear.

As the bikes came round to line up on the grid, Christian was straight back into pitlane and pulling up outside our garage. Wrong tyres for the drying track - slicks please - and he rejoined the race way off the back. Meanwhile, Max was feeling his way in on his tyre choice while the leaders pulled away on their wet tyre setups. He fell back to P16. However, his tyre choice came in to play and he started to make up places.

Christain’s race was rather lonely and not long enough for his change to slicks to bear fruit and he finished a distant P17. But there was a silver lining in that his best lap time placed him on the front row of the grid for race two, P3. If he had soldiered on with wet tyres he would have scored some points but would have been well down the grid for race two. Max continued to make progress making up nine places as he closed on the second ‘wet tyres’ group. Way in the lead were Haslam and Brookes on front and rear intermediate tyres. Max finished P7, five seconds behind Ryde in P3. Another two or three laps and Max would have been on the podium! He posted sixth fastest lap so would start race two from the second row, just behind Christian. 

Race two

Morning warm at midday – no morning running in respect for the Sunday service in the village church. Dry all morning but as the bikes went out there was a brief shower, so everyone came straight back in. Was it going to be another one of those days?

12 lap sprint underway in mixed conditions. Most on wets, Max and Christian with intermediate rears which meant they were dropping back initially but hoping to be much faster towards the end. Then Hickman’s BMW failed spreading oil through the Britten’s chicane at the far end of the circuit. Safety is always paramount, but would you believe it took two and a half hours before the race could be restarted over eight laps in fully dry conditions.

This is where Christian’s bad luck with his race one tyre choice was repaid as he jumped into the lead at turn one, Old Hall. Immediately, Max knew his bike wasn’t working as he’d hoped. It was the first dry run and the chassis set up he’s developed over recent rounds wasn’t working which made for a difficult race and he slipped back to finish a disappointed P9, five seconds back from winner Ray. Christian and Haslam had pulled out a gap over the pursuers with Haslam slipping by into the lead on lap three. Behind, Ray, who had been battling with Max earlier in the race, found real speed and moved forward, closing in to pass Christian going onto the final lap and then making a brave move on Haslam to pull off an unlikely win. We were just delighted that Christian was on the podium again with a fighting P3.

Race three

As a result of the earlier delays, race three didn’t get underway until gone five o’clock. Still an 18-lap feature race and still all dry. On the grid, Christian P6, Max P9. Max’s bike had been changed back to the set up he’d used at Oulton Park earlier in the year. The race turned into a rather unusual high speed procession with 10 bikes covered by no more than two seconds. There were numerous changes of position at the front and throughout the group Redding emerging as winner by 0.5. Christian made a big move to pass Ryde - who had slowed with tyre issues – into the final corner for P5 only for Irwin to sneak around the outside to steal a place and push Christian back to P7 with Max crossing the line almost alongside – 0.083 back in P8. Not fantastic results but so very close to the front all race long.

Championship standings

Christian had been in with a sniff of finishing third in the championship overall. His race one no score after the tyres issue scuppered that mathematical chance, but he has moved up to equal fourth in the standings with Bridewell, both on 272 points. Max is ninth in the standings with 217 points on the board. In the teams’ standings, AJN Steelstock Kawasaki is in sixth place just half a point behind PBM Ducati!

Next time

Our season ends with three races at the wonderful Brands Hatch Grand Prix circuit. The recently revised points system means there are double - 35 - points available for a win, 150 points in total. Expect big changes in the final championship standings. I’m sure Ryde and Ray will be battling wheel to wheel for top honours.

Finally – 2026 News.

As well as the racing, we had two big announcements to make over the weekend. First, we’re delighted that AJN Steelstock are back for another year as the team’s title sponsor. Second, we will have new bikes to race. Still powered by the trusty ZX-10RR engine we are going to be running two of the limited edition bimota KB998 Rimini machines which debuted in this year’s World Superbike Championship. It’s a very special piece of kit and only four will be racing in the world – two in the world series and two in the British Superbike Championship. So, there’s another reason to come along as see us next year.

In the meantime, hope to see you at Brands.

Regards. Nigel. Team Principal.