It was a battling weekend for the DAO Racing Honda squad at Oulton Park, with Lee Jackson and Josh Brookes fighting hard all weekend to bring home vital Championship points at the teams’ home circuit.

Following a positive start to the weekend, where both Josh and Lee worked hard on improving their set-up’s, Brookes would secure himself a direct slot in Q2 after finishing 12th in ‘pre-qualifying’. ‘LeeBob’ would be forced to fight it out in Q1, after missing out on a place by just 0.140 of a second.

Saturday afternoon’s qualifying saw Lee fail to progress through into Q2 after a challenging session, after posting a 1:34.068, he was forced out of the top three in the final stages by Glenn Irwin, leaving him 16th on the grid for the opening lap. Josh would achieve a 1:33.909 in Q2, which would line him up three places ahead in 13th for the opening 18-lap race of the weekend.

Under sunny skies in Cheshire the riders lined up on the grid, focussed on achieving positive results. From the lights the pair made strong starts, and after the opening lap Josh had worked his way into 10th with Lee making up three places into 13th.

After being involved in an incident with Rory Skinner on lap two, Josh was pushed wide and dropped four places to 14th, however the 43-year-old quickly regrouped and began to work his way back through the field. Being in involved in a four-man battle for the top ten, which included his teammate, Josh would take the flag 12th.

Lee would take the flag 11th after solid race, missing out on a top ten finish by just 0.712, after losing out in a last lap battle to Glenn Irwin.

By virtue of their lap times achieved, Josh would start Sunday’s sprint race from 11th with Lee just one place behind in 12th.

From the lights the pair experienced contrasting starts, with Josh making up four places after the opening lap, however after a tricky few corners, Lee sat 14th, but he soon regrouped and got his head down to chase the riders ahead.

The ‘BadBoy’ would then become embroiled in a battle with Glenn Irwin and Jason O’Halloran, and by half race distance after setting his best lap of the race, he was sat comfortably in 11th, and on the back of the group. However, the next lap, as he was pushing hard to make a pass, he crashed at Druids, thankfully unscathed.

By half race distance Jackson had worked his way back into his grid slot, and began hunting down the group ahead. He would inherit 11th following Josh’s crash, and continued to chase down Christian Iddon on the final lap. However, he just couldn’t find a way past and crossed the line to collect another hatful of Championship points.

The team worked tirelessly to rebuild Josh’s Fireblade, and they did just that, building a brand-new motorcycle within two hours, meaning he would be able line up on the grid for the final 18-lap race of the weekend.

Courtesy of their lap times achieved in the sprint race, Lee would start from 13th, with Brookes 15th.

From the lights, Lee and Josh made great starts and following the opening lap they sat in 11th and 13th respectively, and in the group dicing for eighth. By the end of lap four Jackson had broken away from his team mate, who was embroiled in a fight with Ilya Mikhalchik for 13th.

At half race distance ‘Leebob’ found himself at the back of the battle for seventh, with Storm Stacey and Rory Skinner, however, two laps later Skinner broke away, leaving Jackson to fight it out with Stacey for eighth. The pair fought hard for the remaining nine laps, swapping and changes places until lap 13 when he made his move at turn one.

Jackson then began to improve his lap times, but the pair remained in a fierce fight for position, and at the line Lee lost in the battle, taking the flag in 10th.

Brookes, who remained in a battle with the Ukrainian, collecting to fight hard to keep the BMW man behind, posting strong lap times over the remaining laps to hold position. However, on the final lap, after catching the fight for eighth, Brookes lost out in the fight, crossing the line 11th, just 0.066 behind his team mate.

Josh Brookes: “This weekend has ended quite challenging really, it started out strong, and I thought our lap times were respectable, especially in relation to how we started the year here.

“Since then, we have changed the bike to a more regular base set-up, and in recent rounds that has built up some good performance. We almost set a new personal best this weekend, so that was positive and shows we are going in the right direction, but we are still trying to find something because I’m saying to the team that I am at the limit now and taking a lot of risk.

“I crashed in pre-qualifying from being at the limit and trying too hard, but I still qualified well and for race two of the weekend I started 11^th, but again I crashed in the race from being on the limit and trying to stay with the group ahead of me.

“Luckily I was ok, but the bike wasn’t, and the team did an amazing job to build me a new bike, so big thanks to everyone for their help on that. Again, I wasn’t able to make an attack in the final race after doing all I could to get onto the back of the group that Lee was in. It’s a little bit disappointing but we’ve just got to roll with it and go again at Thruxton.”

Lee Jackson: “I don’t know what to say really, I feel like I have ridden well all weekend, especially in the final race, the trouble is we just lack something to go forward. We’ve changed the bike all weekend to help this, and to try and make an improvement. I feel like in the last race we did, and that will allow me to make passes and be in the battle more.

“We have made progress this weekend, it’s not been easy this year for me, but now I feel we can make bigger steps forward, and hopefully at Thruxton we’ll be closer to the front, where myself and the team should be.”

Team manager Jonny Bagnall: “It’s been a challenge this weekend for sure, however me and the team feel we have made some progress following on from the final race. Both Lee and Josh were in the battle and giving it everything that had, so we can’t be too disheartened.

“This weekend certainly has thrown everything at us, Josh has had two crashes, and I must say credit to all the team, they worked around the clock to build him a brand new bike for the last race in under two hours, which shows the professionalism of DAO Racing.

“We have found something that we feel we can build on now heading into the next round at Thruxton and hopefully we’ll be able to turn a corner there.”

Lee Jackson now sits 11th in the Championship on 92 with Brookes 13^th on 77. The team’s attention now turns to round seven of the season at Thruxton, which takes place on August 14/15/16.