Sunday
A day which promised so much for the MCE Ducati British Superbike Championship Team ended with Josh Brookes scoring a battling tenth place finish in today’s opening eBay sprint race at round seven of the series at Cadwell Park.
The Aussie double BSB champion continued his battle with set up issues on the MCE Insurance and factory-supported Ducati Panigale V4R and started the race from row six of the grid. But the race wasn’t to last long as an accident at The Mountain brought out the red flags on lap two.
In the restart, Brookes battled with a host of riders on the fringe of the top ten and in the end, was rewarded with a tenth-place finish to keep his slim hopes of making the Showdown just about alive.
For teammate Tom Sykes, it was a day of frustration having shown his best form of the season so far for Paul Bird’s Lake District-based team. The Yorkshireman, making a return after 14 years to Cadwell Park, worked his way into the Omologato Superpole competition and ended up setting sixth fastest time on the MCE Insurance Ducati to give him his best start of the season on row two.
The ex-World Superbike champion was circulating towards the front when a rash move from rival Danny Buchan had them both on the grass at the Hairpin but not long after, the race was stopped due to the accident.
The restart saw Sykes again towards the front and showing good pace when he was taken down at Mansfield Corner by Christian Iddon with just two laps to go, ending his promising race.
Josh Brookes: “After the difficulties we had in qualifying, a top ten position is an improvement but, understandably, there are no hurrahs in the team. We still have a load of work to do, and we need to find some further improvements to get us to where we need to be. It was good to be racing with riders who have had wins and podiums, and I enjoyed jumping the Mountain, but I’ll keep working and feed as much information back to the team as I can so we can try to improve tomorrow.”
Tom Sykes: “It turned out to be a very frustrating day as I seemed to have a target on my back. Firstly, I got taken wide at the Hairpin and then in the restart, I got sideswiped by another rider so the least said about it the better as he’s since been penalised. People need to remember it’s Cadwell Park but it’s so frustrating as we had a reasonable set up for most of the lap, I was just losing out in the last sector. But we’ll dust ourselves down and go again tomorrow.”
Bennetts British Superbike Championship Sprint race (15 laps)
P10 Josh Brookes (MCE Ducati)
DNF Tom Sykes (MCE Ducati)
Championship Standings
12 Brookes 94
14 Sykes 75
Monday
The MCE Ducati team continued their difficult season at the seventh round of the Bennetts British Superbike Championship which took place at Cadwell Park this weekend.
After yesterday’s promising start with Tom Sykes qualifying the MCE Insurance-sponsored and factory-supported Ducati Panigale V4R inside the top six, his crash when taken out by another rider in the sprint race set the precedent for what was to follow today.
The ex-World Superbike champion battled to a tenth place in today’s opening race before crossing the line in a disappointing 20th in the third and final race after losing time early in the race.
The challenging Lincolnshire track didn’t favour teammate Josh Brookes either whereby the Aussie was hoping to improve on his top ten position of yesterday for Paul Bird’s Penrith-based team.
The double BSB champion crashed out over the Mountain in today’s opening race with a couple of laps to go, luckily without injury, but battled back to record an 11th place finish in the final race of the day.
The team’s disappointment was compounded by the fact that neither rider can now qualify for the title-deciding Showdown later in the season.
Josh Brookes: “Again it’s difficult to put a positive spin on things. We continued to make changes to the bike in the hope of improving it but today, that compromised us getting it off the line. And whilst the set-up was better for the races, I was hampered by getting bad starts. I got stuck in a battle with Tom both times and tried to pass him but crashed on the Mountain and in the final race, it took a long time to pass him, by which time I’d no chance of catching the riders in front. It’s been a painful weekend in more ways than one but that’s the situation unfortunately.”
Tom Sykes: “I don’t really have a lot to say. It’s been another very tough weekend for us and I’m disappointed with the results after a promising start in Superpole yesterday. We’ll regroup and hope for better luck next time out at Snetterton.”
Johnny Mowatt, Team Co-Ordinator: “It’s a very disappoining day as for the first time since it came into play, PBM haven’t made the Showdown which is a significant factor for us. There were some positives, especially as Tom showed his mettle in Superpole, which is where he made his mark in World Superbikes. Josh was lucky to get away without injury after his big crash which was a relief too. We move on to Snetterton where we enjoyed a good pre-season test earlier in the year so hopefully, we can replicate that sort of form.”
Bennetts British Superbike Championship race two
1 Danny Buchan (BMW)
2 Bradley Ray (Yamaha)
3 Tommy Bridewell (Ducati)
4 Leon Haslam (Kawasaki)
5 Rory Skinner (Kawasaki)
6 Andrew Irwin (BMW)
10 Tom Sykes (MCE Ducati)
DNF Josh Brookes (MCE Ducati)
Bennetts British Superbike Championship race three
1 Danny Buchan (BMW)
2 Bradley Ray (Yamaha)
3 Tommy Bridewell (Ducati)
4 Leon Haslam (Kawasaki)
5 Rory Skinner (Kawasaki)
6 Peter Hickman (BMW)
11 Josh Brookes (MCE Ducati)
20 Tom Sykes (MCE Ducati)
Championship Standings (after seven rounds)
1 Ray 372pts
2 O’Halloran 359
3 Skinner 241
4 Jackson 225
5 Irwin 214
6 Bridewell 201
12 Brookes 99
15 Sykes 81
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