Oli Bayliss took victory at the end of a hard-fought 10 laps in this afternoon’s Supersport Sprint race – as Luke Stapleford extended his championship lead.
Bayliss beat Stapleford by just 0.242secs after a two-man scrap around the Dutch track.
Honda Racing UK’s Jack Kennedy, who sits second in the points behind Scars-Racing Ducati’s Stapleford, started today’s race from pole but it was Oliver Barr who got the best start, flying off the line from second on the grid to lead into Turn One as Jack Mahaffy came through from Row Two to move into second.
Kennedy had an out of the seat moment out of the hairpin while running third to drop back to sixth, quickly moving back up to fifth as behind, Stapleford was making up for a P7 start, passing his rival to move P5 before the end of the lap.
Bayliss, who had also started from the second row, was already up to P2 as the second lap began and soon passed Barr to hit the front. Meanwhile, Stapleford was carving his way through and by the end of Lap Two was running in second position behind Bayliss.
The leading duo were in a class of their own as they quickly gapped the race and it became a two-way fight to the flag.
Stapleford hit the front on Lap Three but by Lap Six, Bayliss was back ahead and the pair battled it out for the remaining four laps.
On the penultimate lap, Stapleford made a move into the chicane to go ahead but Bayliss stormed straight back through to lead onto the final lap.
Kennedy had passed Barr for third on the fourth lap but couldn’t get close to the two ahead and instead found himself scrapping with Barr all the way to the end.
Stapleford was looking menacing on the last lap, setting the fastest Sector One time of the race but he couldn’t quite catch and pass Bayliss and had to settle for second at the flag, just 0.242secs adrift.
Behind, Kennedy was sitting fourth and tried his best to pass Barr for third over the line but Barr took it by 0.012secs as Carter Brown rounded out the top five.
Quattro Group British Supersport Championship, Sprint result:
1. Oli Bayliss (Triumph Macadam Factory Racing)
2. Luke Stapleford (Scars-Racing Ducati) +0.242s
3. Oliver Barr (Binch Pro Ducati) +9.642s
4. Jack Kennedy (Honda Racing UK) +9.654s
5. Carter Brown (Binch Pro Ducati) +18.018s