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The Real Cycle People
44 George Street, Perth

Oulton Park 5-7 May 2007

Anxious to put a poor start to the season behind him, Robbie rode a mature and sensible race to take a solid 5th place at round four of the 125GP Championship at Oulton Park.

Crashes and injuries at both Thruxton and Silverstone left the Bridge of Earn teenager looking for a confidence boosting result at the rolling Cheshire circuit, and from the outset it appeared that this was going to be the race that put his 2007 campaign back on track.

Saturday's first free practice saw Robbie put the KRP Honda into 2nd place on the timesheets. He then took a further two seconds off his lap times in the lunchtime session and maintained his 2nd place in the standings with a best time of 1.48.207.

The first qualifying session for the 125s was also held on Saturday - due Oulton's Sunday morning noise restrictions - and once again Robbie was quickly on the pace, taking nearly another second off his time, however, as the lap times came down, his best time of 1.47.441 put him in 5th place overall.

With Sundays second qualifying session held in less favourable weather conditions, none of the top riders was able to improve on the previous day's times, so Robbie kept 5th place and found himself at the front of row two on the grid for the race.

Bank Holiday Monday brought a massive crowd and some very mixed weather to Oulton Park, but the 125 riders avoided the showers that affected many of the day's races, and they then treated the spectators to a truly memorable race.

Although Robbie dropped a couple of places right at the start, he quickly pulled back up to fifth by lap three and then set about chasing the four-rider leading pack of Jones, Coghlan, Mossey and Beech. The leading four were however in a class of their own and produced some stunning racing as they steadily distanced themselves from the rest of the field.

Robbie initially started to close the gap but soon realised that he would have to push to the limit to try and get back on terms. Aware that a finish and a good haul of points was vital, he decided not to risk another DNF and then settled into his own pace and ran a solitary race to the flag, finishing 5th with a four second gap between him and the next rider - KRP team mate Nikki Coates.

5th place moves Robbie up to 8th overall in the Championship table, while a second place podium finish for the Cup competitors took him to 5th in the Cup table. More importantly perhaps, the confidence boost of an incident free weekend and a strong race performance sets him up well for round five at Snetterton on the 20th of May.

Reports from other rounds.

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