Local riders revelled in the sunny conditions as Oulton Park hosted the third round of the British Superbike Championship.
In the Superbike class, Jake Dixon was on fire and took the RAF Regular and Reserves Team's Kawasaki to two hard-won podium places with a second and third.
Dixon was never lower than second in qualifying and led both races for a while before being passed by Leon Haslam in the first race and then Haslam and Jason O'Halloran in the second race – although he managed to hold off Shane Bryne in both races and now moves up to sixth in the championship standings.
In the Superstock 600 class, Thetford's Ryan Vickers continued his total domination all weekend, taking his third pole position of the year, with Norwich's Grant Newstead joining him on the front row in third. When the lights went green, Vickers was away, but this time Newstead was mugged on the startline and was down around 10th place. Vickers came under attack from draperRacing's Aaron Clarke when the safety car came out, causing the pack to close up, and he had to do it all again.
Clarke was closing in again in second when he went down at Shell Oils Hairpin and Vickers was able to take his third win of the year quite comfortably – and set the fastest lap. Newstead rode well and crossed the line to take fifth. Vickers, as the race winner, was invited into the Supersport race and was going well when he crashed out without injury.
Morello Racing's Sam Clarke and Josh Elliott didn't have the best grid positions. Clarke's was due to an electrical problem and Elliott crashed at Shell Oils in qualifying, but although Elliott finished eighth, making up nine places in the race, he is still only sixth in the championship as he heads for Snetterton. Clarke was 10th.
It was another frustrating weekend for draperRacing's Simon Gilbert and North Walsham's Jack Tritton in the sidecars. At one point they were third fastest until a faulty kill switch put them on the back row. On the first lap they charged through the field and were seventh when, with only three laps to go, the engine blew up causing the race to be red-flagged.
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