(Photos supplied by Jamie Morris)
April.....what the f**k happened there?
From race penalty inconsistencies to punch ups on the side of the track, April has definitely not been boring for motorcycle racing fans across the globe.
Lets start with BSB. I know the BSB Oulton round was just last weekend and I should probably start with the opening round, but I can't not start with the Seeley VS Olsen incident.
For those of you who don't know, multiple North West 200 winner Alistair Seeley and British Superstock 1000 front runner, Alex Olsen were involved in an altercation at Oulton Park. To cut a long story a RACING INCIDENT (just want to make it clear because unfortunately it does happen quite often if someone puts a foot or a wheel wrong) which was caused by Olsen lead him to crash out, taking Seeley out. These things happen, its racing.....however, Seeley was having none of it and headed straight after Olsen and began punching Alex. Now, it wasn't all Seeleys doing as Olsen did retaliate and give him a little left, right (didn't get as far as a goodnight), and as many of us can appreciate, Seeley was pissed, but when this has happened with him and other riders in the past (lets not forget about him and Kennedy in 2019) you have to wonder if someone needs to give him a stronger talking to....
And if you thought that was the only time the Oulton Park curse hit that weekend, WRONG.
Let us cast our minds back to 2022(I don't want too either don't worry) and in the showdown stages of British Superbikes, we headed to Oulton Park for the second time. I'm sure you all know I am going with this, Peter Hickman and Jason O'Halloran... need I say more? To refresh you memory, Hicky dove up the inside of Jason (some may argue too hot or too closely, I'm not going to comment, you know, keeping out of racing politics and all that) and Jason ended up being taken out. This started a mini war on twitter and instagram with Hicky posting Ayrton Senna Quotes (which is pretty iconic) "if you no longer take gaps that exist, you are no longer a racing driver" after Jason was shouting
and swearing at him from the side of the track. The race after Jason was taken out by Bridewell, and we all thought the Oulton Park curse would have run out, Oh but we were so so so wrong. Lets come back to 2023. Jason O'Halloran was involved in not one but two incidents resulting in two DNF's for the Australian rider.
Jason wasn't the only one who got caught out by Oulton Park last weekend. Hicky went
and put it on pole then went and put it in the gravel. We hope that the two will have more positive races in the coming rounds.
Tommy Bridewell is going to be in no rush to forget about Oulton as he has his best performance of the season so far, with a victory as well as his new teammate at BeerMonster Ducati, Glenn Irwin getting himself on the top step that weekend.
In other BSB news Leon Hallam proved to be strong on the ROKiT BMW (Can someone please tell me what that ROKiT is, thanks) with multiple podiums and Dean Harrison proved his speed and talent with scoring points, ahead of the start of the road racing
season with the North West 200 right around the corner. Youngster Storm Stacey proved he had the pace over the bank holiday weekend as he stayed with the leading pack after starting third on the grid in race one.
The BMW F900R cup.....Cooper won. That's about it.
JOKING.
I mean he did win heat 1 and the main event however Thomas Strudwick proved strong as he kept up with Cooper for a large portion of the Main Event race, with Nikki Coates, Christian Smith and Michael Rutter rounding out the top 6.
Now we have covered the drama that was Oulton Park, lets take ourselves back to the start of April. The sun was shining on the Easter weekend and we saw the return of BSB, and weren't we happy. Josh Brookes, Glenn Irwin and Kyle Ryde set the tone and pace for the opening round as we saw three different race winners that weekend. Unfortunately crashes from Danny Buchan and Ryan Vickers at Silverstone meant that they both had to sit out on Oulton, however they are ready to hit the ground (or the track) running (or riding).
Time for some World Superbikes I reckon. The paddock headed to Assen where we saw Bautista dominating the round with a hat trick of wins( that Ducati has way too much power), with Rea and Toprak close behind. However it wasn't the happiest of rounds for Jonathan Rea as he lost the front and went down losing his chance of securing a podium spot in race three.
Unfortunately whilst at Assen we saw a huge high side from Michael Van Der Mark, which caused him to fracture his femur.
Bautista heads in to the Barcelona round at the top of the championship but will we see a Toprak or Rea takeover?
Lets jump into MotoGP shall we and can we please talk about Fabio Quatararo's long lap penalties???? I get race direction need to keep consistent with their sanctions, but when a rider is about 2mm over the white line on a long lap just as he is entering the circuit WHY GIVE HIM ANOTHER? I get why they may have thought he came on too close to other riders as he entered but that's what happens when a rider has to rejoin. MotoGP created the sprint race for 'closer racing' but when it gets close, they don't like it and hand out sanctions and penalties like they're going out of fashion.
In more positive news, KTM had a positive round with soon-to-be dad Jack Miller and Brad Binder putting it on the podium on the main race, alongside Pecco Bagnaia who put it on the top step.
World Endurance kicked off with a bang as they endured the 24 hours of Le Mans. Greg Black and Josh Hook were involved in an incident into turn one as well as the Wojcik team crashing out on the start finish straight at the very beginning. Honda France won the gruelling 24 hour race in the superbike class and the Teams BMW team won in the superstock class. Speaking of Superstock, I think we need to give a shoutout the the lads at TRT Suzuki. Ducati TriOptions champion David Shoubridge and stock 1000 riders Tom Ward and Tom Oliver finished 8th in class and 19th overall....very good going for a new team!
We also saw Gino Rea doing a parade lap to show his progress and recovery after his terrifying incident in Suzuka. We are glad to see Gino back to good health and comfortable on a bike again (anyone else get emotional watching it back?)
And that was April. A bit of a shit show really. However on that note, no matter who you support or believe in terms of racing incidents, just remember there is a person on the other side of that screen reading the slander that is sent too them, so just be mindful about what you're saying and also that as spectators, we are never going to truly know exactly what happened as camera angles are everything (Ted Talk over now).
As we look forward into May, we see the return of road racing at the North West as well as well as GP heading to Le Mans, WSBK heading to Barcelona and BSB heading to Donington Park.
One final note. In 2022 we saw the loss of many riders, one of which being Keith Farmer. In April we saw the results of the inquest into his cause of passing. My thoughts are with Keiths loved ones during this time.
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