Tommy Bridewell finishes fourth, while Jack Kennedy takes the championship lead
As the sun sets after a frantic Saturday of Bennets British Superbike Championship racing, Tommy Bridewell extends his championship lead with a hard fought fourth and Jack Kennedy celebrates a return to the top of the supersport standings with a close second.
Thruxton is notoriously a circuit at which a mixed set of results occur due to the tactical nature of the racing that takes place thanks to the need to manage tyre life. And a day brimming with racing action today was no different.
Superbike riders Tommy Bridewell and Andrew Irwin both had solid qualifying sessions early in the day and were separated by exactly a tenth come the session’s end. The closeness of the field however meant that although just 0.3 and 0.4 seconds back from the quickest time of the session, come lights out they would line up in eighth and ninth on the grid respectively.
In the twenty-lap afternoon race, both riders made strong starts to their races, Tommy especially making immediate progress to place as high as third in the opening lap melee. Andrew though was quick to begin preserving his tyre and dropped down the field to twelfth, albeit just seconds behind the leader. At half race distance Tommy was positioned in seventh with Andrew maintaining twelfth as the top fifteen riders ran almost nose to nose.
On lap fourteen the race then began to hot up as the high-speed game of chess unfolded and riders revealed their true race pace. Tommy instantly began putting passes on his competitors and fired himself into the lead with just a lap to go, whilst Andrew tagged onto the back of a leading gaggle of seven riders. At this point, both were in contention for podium finishes.
Then heading into the final chicane on the final lap of the race, the leading seven riders fanned out across the circuit in a manner more akin to a Moto3 race as they battled for the win. As the riders fanned out, Andrew Irwin, positioned on the outside, was caught out by the riders’ movement to the outside and mistakenly clipped Danny Kent’s rear, causing Andrew to crash out of the race, fortunately unhurt. Tommy meanwhile lost out as the leaders battled through the final chicane to finish fourth. This solid fourth-place finish extended his championship lead to twenty-six points.
In Supersport, Jack Kennedy was joined by his Honda stablemate for the weekend as Dean Harrison and the team opted to switch to the Supersport series for this weekend to test some development parts mid-year. In the five-lap dash, caused by a red flag in the previous running of the race Jack Kennedy bagged podium number nine of the year after just clipping the rev limiter as he made his move for the win on the final lap. Dean Harrison meanwhile in a seamless switch to the middleweight series raced to a solid eighth place finish after qualifying in a strong fifth.
#1 Tommy Bridewell
I am happy, I can’t be anything but happy, we’ve come home in fourth in what was a crazy last few laps, which we easily could’ve been tenth. We’ve avoided a big incident at the last corner, and the main thing is that Andrew is alright. I’m honestly not disappointed at all, fourth equals my best result here and I was just trying to position myself so we were in the right place at the right time and not showing our hand too early. Look, a fourth place finish puts some more solid points on the championship board, I extend my championship lead and we have two more races tomorrow to have another go at it.
#18 Andrew Irwin
I honestly think that we did everything perfectly up until the crash at the end of the race. We were managing the race really well and I think we timed our move to the front at just the right time to still have the tyre and be there in the fight for the podium. Coming into the last chicane we were in a big group of seven riders and as we all tried to get in the best position I was on the outside and everyone fanned out across the circuit, I just wasn’t expecting Danny to keep on moving to the outside and it just caught me out and I clipped his rear wheel and I went down. For me it is 100% a racing incident. I’m obviously disappointed not to finish but we had the pace for a podium for sure and we executed our plan really well, so I will focus on those positives.
#4 Jack Kennedy
So in the first race, we got away quite well and I was right on the back of Luke Stapleford which was perfect. Then McManus came through and roughed us up a bit which cost us lots of time to Stapleford out front. Then Seeley joined the fight and we were just losing out to Stapleford out front. I finally got through on them and was just starting to pull Luke back in when the red flag came out. Which in truth in some ways I was glad for as it meant I could see if I could go with him again. Credit to the team and the tyre man Karlos for getting everything ready to go again so quickly when we came in from the red flag. Then in the next race I got a good start and we could just go hell for leather for five laps. I tried to tee him up onto the back straight on the last lap and I actually caught a perfect slipstream which pulled me up to him but it was almost too good a slipstream as I clipped the limiter and he just gapped me. If I had tried to do a move it would have been a do or die lunge and it would’ve put us both at risk so I settled for second. The main thing is that we beat Currie and that put some more solid championship points on the board. We’re on pole tomorrow and the aim is to see if we can go one better and score some more solid points.
#5 Dean Harrison
I’ve enjoyed switching bikes to be fair and seeing where things are with the CBR600RR. I was a bit frustrated with the result to be fair because I think we have a bit more potential than that result. In the first race I had a really good start and was up into third early on before I got beat up and shuffled back. I’m racing with people that I don’t race with week in week out so it can be a little difficult to predict how people are going to act or what they are going to do. Then when the red flag came out we had a five-lap dash, which doesn’t really suit me as I tend to have better late-race pace. We were just getting going towards the end and I’d pushed through into eighth and the flag came out. I think the longer race tomorrow will suit us better so I’m looking forward to that for sure.
Jack Kennedy back to winning ways and Tommy Bridewell extends his lead
After a hot and sweltering day of racing at Thruxton for round seven of the Bennetts British Superbike Championship, Tommy Bridewell extends his lead at the top of the series standings whilst Jack Kennedy pulls off a stunning last lap move to seal win number six of the year.
The first BSB race of the day was a frantic affair as an already short twelve-lap sprint, became a ten-lap dash to the finish as a result of a red flagged incident. So as the grid assembled for the second running of the race, Tommy and Andrew both had work to do from fourteenth and sixteenth on the grid. With the softer SC0 tyres shod to their Fireblades, both riders knew that quick progress was needed in order to score solid points. Following a brief safety car period on lap two to four, Tommy quickly set about climbing up the field to finish in seventh come the flag, a solid seven positions higher than his qualifying position. Andrew Irwin meanwhile, having had a high-speed crash the day before, was struggling to gain the same feeling from his newly built Fireblade. He finished inside the points in fourteenth.
In the second superbike race of the day, the longer twenty-lap feature race, Tommy made a promising start from the front row of the grid to lead in the early laps. However, an unfortunate problem with his quickshifter caused his bike to unexpectedly slow and he was hit from behind in the final chicane. Managing to stay on the bike Tommy dropped down to eleventh place and had to fight hard to progress back through the field. Needless to say, he dug deep and climbed all the way back through the midfield to finish sixth at the flag. With this result, he extends his championship lead at the top of the standings to twenty five points. Andrew Irwin ran as high as eighth position towards the latter end of the race, only to make a mistake and run on losing time and several postions. He fought back valiantly however and crossed the line in ninth to score more valuable points.
In the sole supersport race of the day, Jack Kennedy delivered a masterful performance to stalk his title rival Luke Stapleford for all of the race before pulling off a sensational move into the final chicane on the last lap to seal an impressive victory, his sixth of the year. In doing so, he now has a championship lead of four points. Dean Harrison just missed out on his target of a top-six finish as an in-race penalty for running on at the chicane meant that despite crossing the line sixth on the road, he dropped to seventh in the classification. Nonetheless, a return to the fight towards the front of the field as he carries out some in-season development work sees him head to Cadwell in a buoyant mood.
The team will next be in action at round eight of the championship, which takes place at the team’s home round, Cadwell Park, 24th – 26th August.
#1 Tommy Bridewell
I am satisfied with the weekend as a whole in truth. I came into Thruxton with no expectations as I didn’t know if I would come here and win all three races or come here and be up against it. The feeling in FP1 wasn’t amazing but the good thing is that we made inroads with the setup that I think will help, not just for here but for the rest of the year too. We tried something with the geometry which turned out to be helpful for me and unlocked some potential. This is the good thing about working as part of a team because Andrew has likely learnt things from me and this weekend I have learnt some things from his setup, which is great for the team. The sprint race just didn’t play into our hands, I had a mega start in the first running as I made such a good start and got away with the guys near the front and I was on for a strong result. Then the red flag came out and we had a ten-lap race, which was then disrupted with the safety car for two laps too. So to try and make progress with not a lot of laps is tough, super tough. Seventh was ok to be fair, but I think there was potential for more. In the last race, we had a quickshift problem which made me instantly think that I was out of the race, so for me to salvage sixth is a solid result to be fair. I came into this weekend with a nineteen point championship lead and now I have a twenty five point lead to Kyle and we are forty seven points ahead of Glenn. For me, I can’t be disappointed.
#18 Andrew Irwin
It is another weekend where I feel like I had the speed again, we showed that today and yesterday before the fast crash. This morning’s race was obviously difficult, getting back up to speed and using a new bike with the same settings just didn’t quite feel the same. In the last race I was riding well and making my way through the pack before I made a mistake, ran wide and lost four seconds. I ended up ninth but feel like we could have come through to sixth without the mistake. In the end I felt good and felt like we had more late in the race. The result is not what I want, or what the team wants, but for me it is about the speed and for sure the speed is there. I had some fight in me again and I have to remember that I’ve come back from a fast crash yesterday to be inside the top ten showing good pace.
#4 Jack Kennedy
I tried to deliver a perfect race there because the truth is if you can be inch perfect then the results will come. I knew Luke probably wanted to follow me but it ended up the other way around. We both pulled a big gap to the guys behind which was perfect for me. The pace he was setting was so fast and it was hard for me to hang on to the back of him for the whole race. I was trying to make sure that I was in the slipstream because he could gap me with the extra torque in so many places. I have no idea how we managed to sustain such a strong pace for the whole race in this heat. I tried to tee up the move for the whole race but I just didn’t know how it was going to come off. In the end, I just went for it on the last lap and it all came off. I’m delighted to take the win, take the championship lead and head on to the next round at Cadwell Park where I think the Honda will be even stronger.
#5 Dean Harrison
I think it’s been a good weekend all things considered, to jump on a 600 mid-season and come away with a decent result in a competitive class. The target was a top six, so to finish sixth on the road but seventh in the result due to the penalty isn’t far away from what we wanted. I passed someone into the chicane but I just wasn’t going to make the corner so I sat up and went straight on through the chicane. I let him come pack past so as not to gain an advantage but I didn’t lose enough time so got the penalty. I’m happy with the weekend and I’m looking forward to having another go at Cadwell.
