The Swan Yamaha team return to Oulton Park in Cheshire this May Bank Holiday weekend (5/6//7) for the third round of the MCE Insurance British Superbike Championship as Tommy Hill and Noriyuki Haga target their first victories of the season.

Defending champion Hill took a pair of second place finishes last time out at Thruxton and after a winning performance at the Cheshire circuit last year he is determined to make it a repeat performance. Haga returns to Oulton Park for the first time since 2004 and is ready to build on his top ten finish in the second race at Thruxton. The opening race of the weekend (postponed from Brands Hatch) takes place on Sunday following the Oulton Park qualifying session and will see the Swan Yamaha pairing line up on the fifth row of the grid, with both riders eager to make an impression.

Hill said:

“I think so far this season it has been a bit of a learning curve for everyone with the regulation changes. We certainly learnt a lot from Thruxton and I think the use of different tyre combinations was a bit of a variant; Brands Hatch was obviously difficult conditions so I think at Oulton Park we could see things turn around again. We had a pole position and a race win there last season so I would like to think that despite the changes we can have another strong performance again. I think that in the first race I will have a lot of work to do as I am starting from the fifth row as that was the one from Brands Hatch but we will just have to push as hard as we can and then set ourselves up for the next two races on the Bank Holiday Monday. We missed out on the win twice at Thruxton so we are going out to change that at Oulton Park.”

Haga said:

“I am ready for Oulton Park and my focus continues to be for me to do my best every time I am on track. Brands Hatch was one thing, Thruxton was another but Oulton Park is a new weekend and I hope that we can improve again. I have raced at the circuit before but that was in 2004 and I can’t remember it too well as that was eight years ago, but for sure I am going to try and learn it again quickly and then fight in the races. I think the circuit should be better for me and we can have a strong performance for the Swan Yamaha team.”

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