Ryuichi Kiyonari and Jonathan Rea each enjoyed a race victory, and each took a tumble, in an incident packed eighth round of the Bennetts British Superbike Championship at rain-soaked Oulton Park, results that leave the situation at the top of the title stakes at status quo with the Japanese rider eleven points ahead.

Rea, who had claimed pole-start at record pace, made the early running in the opening race and was out front going into Druids on the fourth lap when his HM Plant Honda swerved wickedly out of line, throwing him across the track.

The 20 year old Ballyclare rider was down and out as Kiyonari charged relentlessly on to his sixth victory of the campaign while behind him Shane Byrne came through to take second place on his Stobart Vent Axia Motorsport Honda ahead of Rizla Suzuki rider Chris Walker with Leon Haslam, fourth, and salvaging strong points for the Airwaves Ducati team who had seen their former champion Gregorio Lavilla crash on the opening lap.

Rea again made the perfect start to the second race, but Kiyonari was on the charge, and moved ahead on the second lap, but two laps later, at the same spot at Druids, the Japanese rider fell in a carbon-copy incident to that of his team-mate.

That left the way clear for Rea to take a comfortable fourth victory of the season, running some twelve seconds clear of Karl Harris, enjoying his best result of the season aboard the Hydrex Honda with Byrne third from Haslam while Leon Camier took fifth ahead of Tom Sykes who was slowed by a misfire.

“Kiyo set a massive pace, and I decided to ride my own race, thinking that he would either crash or win by a mile,” reflected Rea. “It was a great relief to be able to comeback so quickly with a win. I am riding for the championship. I honestly believe that I can do it now. I am up there fighting for the title.”

Rea, like Kiyonari, had escaped injury in his crash, and that was some relief to him, as he only grazed the right knee on which he had undergone surgery ten days ago to help heal an injury sustained in a crash while riding his mountain bike. “I have to thank my consultant for putting my knee back together, and also my team who kept my spirits up in between the two races. I apologised to them for the mistake I made in the first race.”

Kiyonari heads the title stake 273-262 over Rea with Haslam moving into third place 231-226 ahead of Lavilla who compounded a miserable day as he finished a distant tenth.

Tristan Palmer, riding the THR Honda, completed a daily winning double in the British Superbike Cup. Malcolm Ashley took second in the opener, but tumbled out of the second in which Tom Tunstall ran just adrift of Palmer who now leads the rankings 226-220 over James Buckingham who had to settle for fourth place in each of the races.

ends.