BSB Oulton Park: Race 1 - Easton beats Camier in first Oulton race

Stuart Easton claimed his second BSB race win of the season after a real head-to-head scrap with recently crowned champion Leon Camier to produce what most experts in pit lane were calling the race of the season.

Camier led into the final lap on the Airwaves Yamaha but Easton – who had started from pole for the first time in his BSB career – slammed under him going into Old Hall only to lose out on the run to Cascades.

Easton was far from beaten and pulled off a sensational pass going into Hizzy’s chicane. As he levelled with Camier, neither rider wanted to back off and Camier almost ran onto the grass before getting the bike turned.

Easton just held off Camier at the line by two tenths of a second and said: “Leon had nothing to lose. I had nothing to lose and we both went for it and gave it all we had.”

Camier admitted he had no answer to Easton’s straight-line braking and said:  “I had no answer to him today. He was so strong on the brakes.”

Tommy Hill made it a great day for the Hydrex Honda team, edging out Camier’s team-mate James Ellison by a tenth of a second for third place – his first podium of the year.

Sylvain Guintoli continued his comeback in fifth place on the Worx Suzuki, leading home a pack of six riders including Simon Andrews, Julien Da Costa, Ian Lowry, Chris Walker and John Laverty.

The race was run over 12 laps after Karl Harris had crashed heavily in the first time of asking on the third lap. Harris was running in the leading pack but Hill ran wide, taking Easton out to the edge of the track at Island. When Hill pulled his bike back on line, he unwittingly tagged Harris who crashed at high speed into the barrier at Shell Oils.

Harris suffered concussion and was taking Leighton Hospital , Crewe for precautionary x-rays but there was no initial evidence of serious injury. 

MCE BSB Race one

1 Stuart Easton (Hydrex Honda) 19m 21.434secs
2 Leon Camier (Airwaves Yamaha) +0.208s
3 Tommy Hill (Hydrex Honda) +0.222s
4 James Ellison (Airwaves Yamaha) +0.331s
5 Sylvain Guintoli (Worx Crescent Suzuki) +13.129s
6 Simon Andrews (MSS Colchester Kawasaki) +13.129s
7 Julien Da Costa (MSS Colchester Kawasaki) +13.599s
8 Ian Lowry (Relentless Suzuki by TAS) +13.837s
9 Chris Walker (Motorpoint/Henderson Yamaha) +14.771s
10 John Laverty (Buildbase Kawasaki) +14.815s