Glen Richards

Glen Richards returned to the scene of his first win earlier this year to claim top spot number 2 at Oulton Park this weekend.

The race had eerie similarities to the battle between Glen and Hudson Kennaugh of Raceways Yamaha in the first Oulton Park race and the win further extends Glen’s lead at the top of the championship to a useful 25 points.

Getting away brilliantly from fourth on the grid, Glen had a wonderful start and rode straight into the lead on the first turn but Kennaugh passed immediately and led going into Cascades. Glen sat right behind the number 3 bike of Yamaha Raceways for the next 8 laps, lulling Kennaugh into a false sense of security before he seized his chance at Old Hall, outclassing Kennaugh on the brakes and easing into the lead where he stayed for the rest of the race. There was a nervy moment on the last lap where we thought Kennaugh might try to take Glen on the last corner at Lodge, in what would have been a reverse of the events in the earlier round, but sadly for Kennaugh it wasn’t to be and Glen took the win.

Protest
There was more drama to follow after the race when it emerged that Raceways had lodged an immediate protest against the winning Map Embassy 45 Supersport machine, believing it to be operating outside the specified race regulations. So, with the drinks on ice for the time being, the MSVR technical engineers watched as our mechanics, who should have been celebrating, removed and completely stripped the engine from Glen’s 675. After 90 minutes the scrutineers found Map Embassy’s engine to be as homologated and conformed to the regulations as outlined in the rules.

The outcome must have felt like a double blow for Hudson Kennaugh who was the driving force behind the protest. And although the sidetrack was a major inconvenience to the teams operations and celebrations Map Embassy’s chief engine builder, John Trigger, spoke of his delight at the outcome. “I’m disappointed that Raceways felt they had to go down this path but myself and the team are choosing not to be bitter and take it as a massive compliment. We are building Triumph engines that are out performing every bike on the Supersport grid and the fact that Raceways feel we shouldn’t be up there is testament to the hard work we are doing here at Map Embassy.”

Team Manager Myles Schofield summed up the day nicley
“We have great engineers, a great bike and a great rider and that is why we are winning. I’m totally delighted with the outcome of the race and the protest, the fact that everything is legitimate makes the win even sweeter.”

1. Glen Richards – Map Embassy Racing
2. Hudson Kennaugh – Raceways Yamaha
3. Ian Lowry – Relentless Suzuki by TAS
4. Chris Martin – Gearlink Kawasaki
5. James Webb – Padgetts of Batley

This entry was posted on Monday, July 21st, 2008 at 11:34 am and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.