Lee Johnston maintains hot form at Oulton Park ahead of North West 200 return

The Ashcourt Racing Yamaha rider followed up his brace of runner-up results at Silverstone last month with another rostrum as Johnston maintains his impressive form with a week to go until opening practice at the North West 200 (May 10-14).

Dublin’s Jack Kennedy extended his lead in the championship with his third victory in succession on the Mar-Train Yamaha, taking victory in the Sprint race by 4.2s from Bradley Perie (Appleyard Macadam Yamaha), who squeezed out Johnston by 0.6s for second place.

Johnston, a Supersport winner at the North West 200 and Isle of Man TT in 2019, said: “When we came here before the road races the last time I thought, ‘I’m going to take it steady and be safe’, but it didn’t work out that well.

“So I went with a different approach and was just gung-ho and tried to get to the front, but I had a bit of a bad start and hit a false neutral into Shell and went down a gear too many, and had to come back – I think we were fifth or sixth, so it wasn’t pretty.

“I think if we could try and get away with Jack – I don’t know if we’d have the pace to beat him – but it would be nice to get away from the mayhem and try and go for it.”

Race winner Kennedy is now 19 points clear in the standings from Johnston, with Harry Truelove – fourth on Sunday – in third for Appleyard Macadam Yamaha.

“It’s a racer’s dream to get pole position, get the hole-shot and then control the race,” Kennedy said.

“It was an amazing race and to see a gap going up and up on the pit board was nice because I knew I could set that consistent pace.

“Massive thanks to Mar-train Yamaha because they gave me an amazing bike and I really enjoyed that race,” added Kennedy, who is aiming to make history with a fourth British Supersport title this year.

“We’re in P2 for tomorrow and we’re really looking forward to it.”

Johnston will line up for the Feature race on Monday (3.40pm) on pole after setting the fastest lap. Kennedy starts from second place with the front row completed by Perie.

Eugene McManus was seventh in the Sprint race while Michael Dunlop was 19th on his MD Racing Yamaha.

Fellow top road racer Ian Hutchinson finished 16th on the BPE/Russell Racing Yamaha.

Meanwhile, British Superbike Championship leader Glenn Irwin was 11th in race one.

Irwin began the season in style with his first BSB treble at Silverstone last month to pocket a maximum 75 points.

However, the Honda Racing rider, who qualified ninth fastest at the Cheshire circuit, saw his advantage at the top slashed after the opening race at the Bank Holiday meeting, where Bradley Ray clinched a dominant victory on the OMG Yamaha by 2.7s from Rory Skinner (FS-3 Kawasaki).

Skinner edged out Kyle Ryde (OMG Yamaha) by only 0.054s for the runner-up spot.

Irwin remains in top spot in the standings by 18 points from Ryde and Skinner, who are locked in a share of second place, while Ray is only a point further back following his first win in four years on Sunday.

Australian Josh Brookes took fourth on the MCE Ducati as he finished three seconds down on Ray.

The 37-year-old will return to the North West 200, where Brookes will ride the Panigale V4R in the Superbike races.

He takes over the ride at the event from Ulsterman Michael Dunlop, who split from Paul Bird’s team after expressing discontentment over a lack of testing time on the bike.

Peter Hickman, who is also gearing up for the North West and TT road races as the events return for the first time since 2019, finished a solid fifth in race one at Oulton on the FHO Racing BMW.

The top six was finalised by Tommy Bridewell on the Oxford Products Ducati.

Andrew Irwin – a podium finisher in race three at Silverstone – was 12th on the SYNETIQ BMW, one place behind older brother Glenn.

Alexander Rowan was 10th in the first British Talent Cup race while David Allingham qualified second for today’s National Superstock 1000 race.

Hutchinson was 24th fastest on the Milwaukee BMW ahead of John McGuinness (Honda Racing UK), with Dunlop 27th on a Honda CBR100RR-R.