British Superbikes, Oulton Park: Storm Stacey back on podium -”I’ll probably follow Kyle!”

Storm Stacey began his weekend following Max Cook around to get out of Q1, going all the way to a podium finish as the weather played into his favour.

The LKQ Euro Car Parts Kawasaki rider had already shown his ability in the wet earlier in the season, and has a win to his name, coming at Snetterton.

Starting the day with a solid eighth in race two, the #79 earned an improved seventh on the grid for the final race of the first Showdown weekend in Cheshire, quickly showing again his skills in the wet, while his race rivals faltered of fell:

“The wet conditions seemed to level it out quite a lot for me when it rains I definitely don’t pull a face, I definitely pull a good face”!

• 2024 British Superbikes: Oulton Park (Showdown) - Race Results (3)
• 2024 British Superbikes: Oulton Park (Showdown) - Race Results (2)

Again, the red flag arrived while Stacey held a huge lead - over sixteen seconds ahead as it came out, leaving him first on the grid for the five lap charge but with all the work to do for a second time:

“I’m getting a bit tired of the big lead and then red flag, being fourteen seconds ahead in the first half was definitely…boosting my ego a lot and I felt pretty comfortable with it, but I do wish in that second half I had gone for an intermediate rear because I’d have literally taken off where we had left off and had carried on.

But you never know how the weather is going to go, unfortunately, so we took the safe bet with the soft wet and the rear seemed to be quite all over the place, but third place isn’t bad”.

Stacey’s stance had softened since the result after a lot of head shaking in disappointment in the garage at the time of the decision. Looking ahead to the final two rounds of the season, he is the first to admit more rain will be an advantage for him, with getting in behind someone running well at a track in the dry always an option:

“I hope it’s wet, I really hope it’s wet! Unfortunately in the dry - we just don’t seem to have the speed, it’s more overall speed on the straight line. The acceleration of the bike is really good but the actual going of the bike is not so good, so coming into Donington and Brands we just need to utilise on the bits where we’re strong - the last sector’s always strong for me at Donington, so somewhere I’m probably going to push quite hard and try and make a bit more time in the middle sector is somewhere I struggle - so I’ll probably follow Kyle!”