Hawk Racing came away with a number of positives - despite a large dose of bad luck - after a dramatic weekend’s racing in round two of the Bennetts British Superbike Championship at Oulton Park.

The meeting over May Day Bank Holiday weekend started with young Hawk duo Charlie Nesbitt and Josh Owens showing encouraging pace, eventually positioning 13th and 14th respectively in a rain-affected eBay Qualifying session on Saturday.

Both riders continued to look in good form when Sunday’s BikeSocial Sprint Race got underway until Owens, on the Crendon Honda by Hawk Racing, lost several places when another rider inadvertently forced him off the track. He staged a recovery from there to pass several riders and come home 16th, just outside the points, while Nesbitt rode well to finish 11th and add to his Bennetts BSB championship tally.

Sadly, that was almost the end of Owens’ weekend of racing in his native North West. In the first of Monday’s two races, he made a good start from 12th on the grid before being struck by the bike of a falling rider at the second corner. The incident sent Owens sliding out of the race and his bike tumbling across the gravel at high speed. Thankfully he was uninjured, but his bike sustained too much damage to be repaired in time for the final race.

Nesbitt, on the MasterMac Honda by Hawk Racing, encountered some challenges of his own in Monday’s opening race. He looked set for a strong result until a collision with another rider brought his involvement to an early end. After a check up at the medical centre, he was ready to go again in time for the final race of the weekend, but had to start from the pits - and effectively in last place - due to a technical issue. Despite the difficult start, he carved his way through the field to another points-scoring finish in 14th.

Reflecting on the weekend, Nesbitt said:

“I had mixed fortunes over the three races but overall I’m happy to have scored championship points in two of them and I’ll take some confidence, as well as some learning points, from my performances.

“Oulton Park is a very different track to Silverstone, where the first round was, and it feels like we’ve made good progress that we can build on in the next round at Donington.”

Owens said:

“I was feeling really good going into the first race and hoped to pick up some points from all three, but I had some pretty rough luck and was gutted to basically miss out on both of Monday’s both races.

“These things can happen in motorcycle racing though and it does feel like we learned a lot about the new bike in the time Charlie and I spent on track over the weekend.”

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Team manager Steve Hicken commented:

“Josh was really unlucky but the main thing is that both he and Charlie are fit and well. As a team, we’re still adapting to a new bike and new riders, and you learn a lot over weekends like this when things don’t go to plan.

“Credit goes to both riders for the progress they’re making, and Charlie did well to score points in two races again. I’d also like to say a special thanks to everyone in the garage for their hard work preparing the bikes over an incident-packed weekend.”

Hawk Racing had a third entrant at Oulton Park as Michael Dunlop prepared for his forthcoming road racing campaign by spending some time on track in the Bennetts BSB races. He and Hawk will be travelling to Northern Ireland next week to take part in the North West 200.

The next Bennetts BSB round takes place at Donington Park in Leicestershire from 19-21 May.