From the very first session on track, the Ulster based team saw that is was going to be an interesting weekend for them on the technical front - as Nutt explained, “In the first session I only completed about six laps when the engine dropped a valve. So the second session was spent running-in and trying to decide which way to go, and then in the third session we ran a standard gearbox instead of the race one, and it just wasn’t the thing to do.” That left the team and Nutt with some guess work to do for the single qualifying session.

“We had a good set up even with our problems, but the thing is with Oulton, you need track time to improve your lap times and if you aren’t out there consistently it does set you back a bit,” said Nutt. With that all in mind the Mark Johns/Nutttravel.com squad lined up for race one. “I’ve been having problems with starts and the bike never seems to do the same thing twice!” joked Nutt, “But I got away well and got past Steve Plater then settled in to catch the next group.” The next group consisted of Howie Mainwaring, Ollie Bridewell and Steve Brogan. Nutt soon dispensed with them and moved on to catching Chris Martin, who is one of Nutt’s rivals in the Privateer’s Cup.

“I thought he was too far ahead of me, but I got on the back of him and passed him to take second place in the Cup. I’ll have to say I’m happy with how I was riding, it felt good,” concluded Nutt. Unfortunately race two wasn’t going to pan out just so well.

“During race one I got a hole in the radiator, and the bike was running at 110 degrees! So we swapped radiators between races, and I headed out on the sighting lap. As it turned out, one of the exhaust springs had come off, and the front pipe came loose. There wasn’t time to fix it so I had to come off the grid,” he lamented. “Shame really, but I’m still in the championship chase and that is the main thing.”

The next round of the championship sees the entire British Superbike paddock depart for Ireland, with the racing taking place at Mondello Park on the 19th-21st May.