Bridewell bags a fourth and Kennedy takes the championship lead

Race Report Saturday 10th August 2024

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.

Race 1 - 4th

#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.

Race 1 - DNF

#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.

Race 1 - 2nd

#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.

Race 1 - 8th