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Points Haul Through The Chaos
Both Kiwi, Simon Crafar and Steve Plater scored good championship points with a brace of solid performances at Oulton Park today.
The pair were out to consolidate yesterday’s qualifying rides and make sure of a good run for Team Virgin Mobile Aiwa powered by Yamaha. The tactic succeeded, in a day of melee and carnage on track the Yamaha duo were consistent around the demanding Cheshire circuit.
The rides were so strong in fact that Simon and Steve’s efforts boosted the team to second overall in the manufacturers points standings, the two all-new Yamaha’s are now only being topped by Ducati which is fielding six factory machines.
Steve got the better start to take a fine sixth place with Simon making the most of his short time at the circuit to still score a creditable 11th.
Both Simon and Steve were flying in race two, making their way through the traffic after a first turn bottleneck that saw riders having to avoid each other.
Simon had taken two riders to be in 12th while Steve was up to 10th when defending Champion John Reynolds’ Suzuki dumped oil on the racing line on lap nine. A host of riders fell immediately afterwards and the race was stopped.
After a lengthy delay and clean-up operation the riders were given the chance to inspect the track in a five minute long free session. Unfortunately the track was deemed not safe to continue racing and the meeting was abandoned with half points being awarded to the positions each rider was in when the race was stopped.
Both Simon and Steve were in complete agreement about the decision. Simon said: ‘The track was dangerous in its condition. The oil had been dropped at a place that a blind-approach, fast entry corner, because we are going in banked over at 110mph it’s never going to be able to be raced on like that.`
Race one result: Winner: Steve Hislop, 2 Michael Rutter, 3 Sean Emmett, 4 Paul Brown, 5 John Reynolds, 6 Steve Plater, , 7 Karl Harris, 8 Shane Byrne, 9 Dean Ellison, 10 Glen Richards, 11 Simon Crafar, , 12 Gary Mason, Honda,
Race two result (declared after eight laps): Winner: Michael Rutter, 2 Steve Hislop, 3 Sean Emmett, 4 Paul Brown, 5 John Reynolds, 6 Karl Harris, 7 Shane Byrne, 8 Dean Thomas, 9 Glen Richards, 10 Steve Plater, 11 Dean Ellison, Ducati, 12 Simon Crafar,
Championship points after four rounds:
Hislop 156, Emmett 122, Rutter 114.5, Byrne 88.5, Plater 88, Reynolds 85.5, Brown 83.5, Crafar 52, Richards 42.5, Ellison 36.5
