Richard Cooper was victorious in tricky conditions at Oulton Park this past Sunday (September 15) in the 12th race of the National Sportbike Championship on his Triumph Daytona 660. On a drying track using wet tyres, it was a dominant performance by Cooper winning by over 13 seconds along with taking over the championship lead on his PHR Performance Triumph.

Cooper proved to be the man to beat all weekend, setting the pace in all sessions and conditions to put it on pole position, chased hard by his main championship rival, Edoardo Colombi. Further demonstrating the performance of the new Triumph Daytona 660, five other riders of the British brand qualified in the top ten.

The single race for the series around the tarmac roller coaster in Cheshire would come at the end of the day on Sunday. The newly surfaced track would dry quickly between downpours, but it still left riders and teams with a headache in terms of tyre choice and suspension settings. But when the lights went out for the eight lap event, it was the vastly experienced Cooper - fresh from winning the earlier Supersport race - who made the perfect launch and led into the first turn.

Aaron Silvester, powered into third place on his MIH Solutions Macadam Triumph Racing #34 machine, chased hard by fellow Triumph rider, Thomas Strudwick. Further down the order, Silvester’s teammate, Jayden Martin, was battling inside the top ten.

After just three laps, Cooper had built up a five second lead on a rapidly drying track while former World Supersport 300 rider, Filippo Rovelli, was making a big impression on his guest ride on a Triumph Daytona 660. By the halfway stage, Cooper had increased his lead to a dominant 9.5 seconds while Martin was unable to hold off the advances of Colombi and Alfie Davidson, taking him out of podium contention. 

As the race was reaching its climax, Cooper was able to use his 14-second advantage to ease off on the final lap to take a vital win and with it the championship lead by just half a point with three races left to run. 

For the MIH Solutions Macadam Triumph Racing team, Aaron Silvester was battling for the podium position for much of the race but ended up crossing the line in fifth. Jayden Martin enjoyed some great battles and finished 12th, maintaining ninth in the series with his consistent performance. Katie Hand did not race this weekend as she recovers from a broken collarbone sustained during practice at the previous round.

Making a wild card appearance this weekend was Filippo Rovelli who put on an impressive performance, learning both the bike and the demanding circuit to qualify in sixth. Despite his lack of Oulton experience and the challenging conditions, the Italian placed as high as sixth position until running off track and then regrouping to finish 11th. 

The 2024 National Sportbike Championship returns to action at Donington Park on September 27-29th.

Richard Cooper #47 - 1st place: “It was a good weekend and I took full advantage of the conditions. The tyre choice was made quite easy when nobody else opted for a dry tyre, so the entire grid was on wets. From that point on I pretty much knew I'd be in control of the race with my experience here from various other classes. The Daytona 660 was quite easy to ride despite the conditions. It was nice to see the pit board continually displaying an increasing gap and I gained some valuable championship points with Edoardo finishing third"

Aaron Silvester #34 - 5th place: “Happy to get away with second position from the start and running in third place for most of the race, dropping down to fifth where I finished. Still, I’m happy to get another finish as it could have easily been different in such difficult conditions!”

Filippo Rovelli #27 - 11th place: “I've had a really good weekend riding the Triumph for the first time. It was super fun to meet the team and learn this new circuit. Oulton Park is really fun with a lot of good corners and I felt really good with the bike. I made an error on the brakes in the race and went straight on but recovered some places and it was a fun race. I enjoyed the bike, it was super fun riding this bike and I would like to ride it again"

Jayden Martin #85 - 12th place: “I got a good start from p10 and held strong for the first couple of laps but dropped a few places back down to 13th, but made one place back ending in 12th. I am super happy to top the sector three time just to add a positive on the wet Sunday.”

 

National Sportbike Championship Race 12 result

1st Richard Cooper (Triumph) 

2nd Ash Barnes (Yamaha)

3rd Edoardo Colombi (Aprilia)

5th Aaron Silvester (Triumph)

7th Rhys Stephenson (Triumph)

8th Thomas Strudwick (Triumph)   

11th Filippo Rovelli (Triumph)

12th Jayden Martin (Triumph)

 

National Sportbike Championship after Race 12 of 15

1st Richard Cooper (Triumph) - 243

2nd Edoardo Colombi - 242.5

3rd Ash Barnes (Yamaha) - 193

4th Thomas Strudwick (Triumph) - 183

6th Aaron Silvester (Triumph) - 136

9th Jayden Martin (Triumph) - 69

26th  Katie Hand (Triumph) - 6