For the second week in succession Blackhorse Kawasaki's Brad Anderson produced a display which fully justified his team selection, when he once again placed the Ninja ZX-6R in the points in the Metzeler National Superstock 600 race at Oulton Park.

Buoyed by his points scoring 14th place with his new team last week at Brands Hatch, Anderson arrived at Oulton Park in a confident and determined mood.

In Saturday morning's Free Practice he posted a time of 1:46.14 secs, but in the first qualifying session Brad went almost a second and a half quicker with a time of 1:44.69s to finish the session in 13th place. Second qualifying saw him improve further by over half a second at 1:43.92s, however such is the competitive nature of this class, Brad still found himself in 13th place and heading the fourth row of the grid for the race.

At the conclusion of the first lap of the race Brad had brilliantly made his way up to fifth, 4.9 seconds behind the leader and leading a chasing group of riders over the line. However he unfortunately made a mistake at the chicane on the second lap which demoted him five places to tenth and at the halfway point of the race he was down in twelfth when the safety car came out.

A lap later they were racing again and Brad had climbed three places to ninth and was really pushing for a place on the fringe of the top six. With just four laps to go he lost a place and eventually finished tenth, fractions of a second behind Ben Grindrod in ninth for a well deserved six championship points. Brad was also joint third through the finish line speed trap and the Blackhorse Kawasaki Ninja ZX-6R was the fourth Kawasaki home out of a total of 17 that qualified for the race.

For Victor Cox it was a another frustrating weekend. After posting a time of 1:42.13 secs in free practice for the Metzeler National Superstock 1000 race, an improvement by over half a second in first qualifying to leave him in 15th position in a red flag marred session, did little to satisfy Victor's own high standards.

Speaking afterwards with typical honesty he commented 'That wasn't great, and not the place I want to be, or the team deserve to be! The session being red-flagged twice didn't help us as we had about 15 minutes to make the most of the session. We didn't get the best out of ourselves or the bike, but we'll be ready to go in the second session.'
The team worked on a few improvements before the session and he again went over half a second quicker to eventually finish 12th overall in qualifying.

However any hopes of a good showing in the race itself were quickly dashed when Victor unfortunately retired in the early stages to continue his early season run of bad luck.

Meanwhile Conor Cummins' comeback from serious injury continued at Oulton Park. The Blackhorse Kawasaki rider declared himself happy with the progress made around the undulating Cheshire circuit and was rewarded with a solid 23rd place in the 15-lap race in the Superstock 1000 race.

Like Brands the previous weekend, Conor got quicker and quicker in each session and after placing 35th in Saturday's free practice session, he took 3 seconds of his lap time in opening qualifying to move up to 26th place. Conditions were again good during Sunday's second and final qualifying session albeit with a stronger breeze but it was only in the final few minutes when the riders were able to go quicker than the previous day. A time of 1m42.760s saw another two tenths of a second come off his lap time and the Manxman was able to qualify straight for the main race on Monday afternoon and line up in 28th on the grid.

The 2.69-mile course was again blessed with blue skies and sunshine on Monday and another blistering start saw Conor jump up to 21st at the end of lap one. Briefly up inside the top 20, Conor was lying in 21st place at half race distance and part of a six-man group battling for 17th and although at one stage he'd dropped back to 25th, he dug deep in the final third of the race around the physically demanding circuit and took the chequered flag in a more than solid 23rd place.

Speaking later, Conor said:

"As I've said all along I'm not looking at the results, I'm just concentrating on putting the laps in and this weekend has been another very good workout with good progress made. I had a few handling issues with the bike but we got things a lot better in time for final qualifying and I was able to qualify for the race without having to go into the 'Shoot Out' which I was delighted with and another cracking start got me up inside the top 20. Obviously, it would have been nice to have stayed there and got close to the points but I experienced a bit of brake fade mid-race and the lever was coming back to the bar and I was on the verge of pulling in as it was getting a bit hairy."

"It was quite an eventful race with lots going on out there so, all in all, I had a lot to consider but the brakes came back though so I stuck in there and worked hard right up until the very end of the race and it's been a really good, enjoyable weekend. It was heavy going to begin with but the team worked really hard and got the bike working how I wanted it to and I'm just pleased to have got another finish under my belt and have another relatively trouble free weekend. That's all I'm interested in at the moment and it's all good progress. I'm getting more and more comfortable and am enjoying my racing so I'll look for more of the same next time out."

It's a welcome break now until the next round at Croft in two weeks time.

With three test sessions and three race meetings, to say it's been a hectic four weeks for the team would be something of an understatement!