By New teams, new bikes, new rider/team combinations, new qualifying rules were just some of the factors surrounding the opening British Superbike Championship action of 2021.
The new qualifying rules which entails that the 12 quickest racers from combined Friday practice sessions, progress directly to the second stage of timed qualifying has no question added an extra bit of spice to opening practice stints.
Post wet, damp conditions for the opening practice session, better conditions were to greet competitors for Friday’s FP2 at Oulton Park.
The session originally red-flagged following technical problems afflicting Joe Thompson’s NP Motorcycles BMW, proved pretty productive for world’s fastest road racer Peter Hickman.
Making his racing debut in the FHO Racing colours, Hickman went onto finish sixth quickest thanks to a best lap time of 1 minute 35.661 seconds.
Five places further behind five times TT winner Hickman was Honda Racing’s Glenn Irwin (1.35.880), who finished third in the prior practice session.
Respected International roads ‘Alien’ Dean Harrison, took the Silicone Engineering Racing Kawasaki steed to 25th on Friday’s overall times sheet.
Whilst the Republic of Ireland’s quickest TT racer, Roadhouse Macau backed Brian McCormack finished just under 0.9 behind Bob Smith Spring Cup victor Harrison.
Photo Credit: Double Red
Words by Stevie Rial #dontletfearcontrolyou
