Despite the sun shining for round four of the MCE British Superbike Championship, it was a mixed weekend T3 Racing team as Aleix Aulestia and Luke Jones had eventful races in the Pirelli National Superstock 600 and Motorpoint British Supersport Championship respectively whilst Alex Olsen continued his dominance in the Supersport Cup.
For Osbourne Clark supported Aleix Aulestia, Knockhill proved a weekend of discovery as not only did he have to learn the tight and twisty Scottish circuit, but managed to also squeeze in a little sightseeing around Edinburgh Castle! On track, Aleix quickly settled down to business, not only getting himself dialled in to the circuit but also the new suspension system that was fitted straight after Snetterton. With no circuit knowledge, it was a tough call to get his pace up to the speed of the front running group, finishing in 14th in Q1. As he continued to learn the circuit, he was able to haul himself up to an impressive fourth in Q2.
It was an eventful race for the Pirelli National Superstock 600 rider with one of the Championship runners high-siding out of the hairpin in front of Aleix, sending the bike skyward and landing so close to him that the machine left a tyre mark down the side of his bike. Holding fourth place for the opening laps, despite the distraction, a small slide sent him grass tracking and back to 11th for what was to be his finishing position for the race. A disappointed Aleix said: It is a long way to come and not get the result I had hoped for. This is a tough championship and there is no room for mistakes, unfortunately a little too much throttle unsettled the bike and I could not make the corner and had to use my motocross background just to stay on. Yes I am disappointed but I know I can run at the front and am looking forward to getting to some of the faster more flowing circuits”
Power Projects Racing rider Alex Oulsen had a great first qualifying, placing thirteenth overall and first in the Cup class whilst his stable mate Luke ‘Diddy’ Jones pushed hard to find an initial set-up to go seventh place in Qualifying. Both riders enjoyed strong starts for the sprint race with a brilliant second place for Alex, missing out on the top spot by just 4 tenths of a second whilst Luke was able to build upon his starting place to finish fourth overall.
The main feature race was once again a hard fought race for Luke who enjoyed a fantastic start to run P2 in the opening laps. Holding this position after the recall of a safety car incident Luke found himself lacking confidence in the front end which resulted in him out braking himself on two different occasions, allowing his rivals to take the tighter line and push him down to seventh place. Alex on the other hand was able to go one better than Saturday to take yet another victory in the Cup class.
Luke explained, “It’s been a good weekend, if not a bit tough. The opening race was really good and I managed to fight through to fourth place. That’s why I’m a little confused as to why we struggled in the second race as we didn’t change set-up from yesterday, so I can’t explain the loss of feel. We’ll chalk that one up to experience and move on, ready to come back stronger in the next race!”
After another win, Alex commented “Another double podium and continuing to extend my Championship lead means it’s a bit of a perfect weekend! Race one was great and I narrowly missed out on the win but race two was perfect so I can’t ask for any more from this weekend.”