Appleyard Macadam Yamaha roll into Oulton Park this week knowing they have a realistic chance of fighting for a fifth consecutive Quattro Group British Supersport Championship.

This season had been meant as a development year with two young, relatively inexperienced riders but after watching the timing screens through the official BSB Tests, team owner Robin Appleyard has raised his targets!

At the most recent test at Donington Park, twenty-one year-old Bradley Perie matched the times of former double champion (and previous Appleyard Macadam racer Jack Kennedy) and could of ended even faster if it had not been for a gearbox issue.

Irishman Rhys Irwin (18) moves into the Supersport class and has shown great promise, albeit with plenty to learn from the experienced Yamaha team.

The team’s testing was mostly compressed into the final Oulton and Donington Park tests which were held in perfect conditions; whereas the previous events at Silverstone and Snetterton were rain hit.

With a well-developed ‘setting bank’ of chassis and engine parameters for their Yamaha YZF-R6 machines, the riders should be able to concentrate on outright grip and race duration tyre simulations at the undulating Oulton Park circuit.

Team Owner Robin Appleyard said, “After four clear Championship runs where we may have been favourites, we’ve gone for two young riders to develop… but it looks like after testing we could be in with a shout again!

We never really got going at the early tests due to the weather but come Donington we got a decent amount of track time and could see what the lads were capable of. Brad was very fast, even on used tyres and Rhys made some headway before an ‘off’. It feels like we are ready for Oulton and take on these new teams plus a returning Jack Kennedy, which won’t be easy, but you’ve got to have a target.”

Bradley Perie commented, “It’s crazy to think we’re only just starting but once we start rolling the events are going to fly by. We went really well at Donington and Oulton and I felt confident to push for some fast times. I think we can genuinely be up at the front, the bike’s super strong and I already feel like it’s mine.”

Rhys Irwin added, “I’m really excited to be getting started although I’ve only been to Oulton once on the Superstock bike. It would have been nice to get some more dry testing time as there is lots to learn and wrap my head around but each race meeting will give me plenty of that!”