Ollerton star rescues ‘fireball’ bike

Both ‘Stalker’ Walker and his team mate James Ellison were strong in the opening practice, with Ellison being fastest and Walker ending in fifth. Both got better over the weekend with Ellison qualifying third for the first race.

But it was a different story for Walker who suffered a big crash in the third free practice session and saw his Kawasaki Ninj ZX-10R bike burst into flames.

A fireball erupted as fuel spilled out of the bike engulfing it in flames, though Walker had come off before this and was unhurt.

Walker, as usual never defeated, got up off the grass to see his bike in flames and turned fire-fighter, getting into the inferno and pulling his machine clear of the fire before the aid of fire marshals.

With only four hours to go before qualifying the Lloyds British GBmoto Kawasaki team had got a massive job to get the bike repaired and working for Walker to take part.

But the team did a fantastic job building a new Superbike for Chris and, despite missing an earlier practice session, within three laps of qualifying he had set fastest lap time.

Getting through to the final qualifying session he managed to finish in ninth for the first race for P9.

Walker made a strong start and by the first corner he was in fifth, but shortly afterwards saw a four lap safety car parade with the riders tucked up behind it.

After the safety car went into the pits Walker moved to fourth and Ellison slipped into second but on lap seven Chris crashed out and was unhurt with his bike in need of same big repairs.

Ellison finished in third after a near miss, coming off and re-joining at Hizzy Chicane, to make his third podium of the year.

Race two saw Walker on the third row of the grid in position seven, and again by the first corner Walker had stormed into fourth.

Walker chose a soft tyre for race two, and being the only rider to do so, it proved to be a bad move that saw him finish in eighth position as Ellison again finished third for another podium.

Despite Walker’s fiery exit in practice, crash in race one, and two bike rebuilds, he did well to make a top 10 finish and left Oulton Park sixth in the championship with 39 points.

Walker said: “Firstly I want to thank the boys on my side of the garage. I didn’t give them an easy job this weekend having had to re-build two Superbikes for me.

“I am disappointed with the weekend but I’ve walked away with a strong top 10 place.”

In true Stalker Walker style he added: “Snetterton is next - so bring it on.”

The Snetterton meeting is on the 14th/15th June weekend.

Walker will also be in action locally at Cadwell Park (24th/25th August) and returns to Donington Park on 6th/7th September.

Look out for an exclusive Chad Sport Competition, in association with Donington Park and Paul Horton Motorsport Photography, to win tickets to the Donington Park round of the MCE British Superbike Championship.