Rees loses ground on leaders at challenging Oulton Park

Roundfour of the British National Superstock 1000 Championship headed to the Oulton Park Circuit at the weekend.

Built onto the natural contours of the countryside, Oulton Park’s combination of beautiful scenery and close racing makes it the one of the most picturesque and challenging circuits in the UK. And, itwasnot all smooth sailing for Whakata¯ne’sdamonrees.

Before the race weekend, he had attended a track day at Oulton Park, in wet conditions. “Going into the round, I knewwhere Iwas going, but that’s about it,” he said.

Rees set a lap time of 1m41.265s to finish free practice in 22nd. In the second practice round, he improved to1m40.558s but ended in 25th position, 3.345s off the fastest lap set by Chrissy Rouse.

Saturdaywasa busy day with qualifying in the morning and the first 14-lap race in the afternoon.

In qualifying, Rees set his fastest lap of1m39.025s, puttinghim17th on the grid for race one.

Fellow Kiwi Shane Richardson qualified 11th, with a lap time of 1m 38.386s.

Race one got off to a quick start with Rouse grabbing the hole-shot, ahead of Lewis Rollo anddanny

Kent. By the end of the opening lap Rees had managedto hold on to his starting position andwasfollowing Ttrace winner Dean Harrison. In lap three, Harrison crashed out, promoting Rees to 16th.

By lap seven Reeswasin a fourwaybattle for 15th with Luke Jones, Daveytodd and Luke Hopkins.

Rollo went on take the win by 4.8s and claim his first victory in the British Superstock 1000 Championship.

After a tough race, Rees finished 17th, just 0.222s behind 16th. With his first non-score of the season Rees slipped from 3rd to 5th in the Championship, t three points behind third-placedtim Neave. After a strong ride and finishing second, Rousebecamethenew championship leader.

In race two onsunday afternoon, Rees started from 19th position.

At the end of lap three hemade amove into 13th position, just 0.7s behind fifth. By the race’s midpoint Rees had dropped back to 14th position andwas in a three-way battle for 13th with David Allingham and Jones.

At the start of the penultimate lap Rees had passed Jones for 11th, which he went on to hold to the finish. Richardson finished in 13th position, just 0.272s behind Rees.

“The toughest thing definitely had to be the technicality of the track,”

Rees said. “It’s very blind and undulating.

“Thismeansthat it’s not a straightforward track to learn, you really need to take your timewith it.

“The season had gotten off to a far better start than I think anyone expected, Iwas pretty disheartened bymyqualifying and race one results.

“But I’m a fighter and always want to improve, so I chose not to giveup and took what I could from it.”

After four rounds Rees is in sixth position in thenational British Superstock 1000 Championship sitting on 71 points, 18 points behind third position.