Honda's Tommy Bridewell and Jack Kennedy lead the British Championships

Race Report Monday 17th June 2024

Celebrating its 50th anniversary, Scotland’s only FIA approved circuit didn’t disappoint with exhilarating racing, scorchingly fast laps, hot sunshine, cold rain and some outstanding results for Team Honda Racing UK.

After scoring his 28th career pole position on Saturday, Tommy Bridewell took his CBR1000RR Fireblade SP to a Race 1 win and another Pole Position for Sunday’s Race 2. Starting the race only four points off the championship lead there was a lot at stake for the boundless Wiltshireman as Knockhill’s infamous weather did what it does and the rain fell hard.

With everything to lose Tommy headed the charge on the opening lap, but an understandably cautious race developed allowing riders through when necessary to eventually cross the finish-line in a solid third place, just 0.014 seconds off second place. Teammate Andrew Irwin had an unlucky crash on lap one; an early victim of the treacherous conditions, whilst Dean Harrison again struggled to find the form he’s more than capable of. Harrison crossed the line in 17th place, an improvement however of two positions over Race 1.

Bad luck haunted Irwin and Harrison in Race 3, both not finishing the race yet both capable of mixing it with the best. Meanwhile Tommy locked himself into another ferocious battle towards the front, pushing his way up from an early fourth place to an eventual second place finish after a red-flagged 22 laps of the expected 30, just 0.635 off the lead.

A delighted Tommy Bridewell now leads the championship by 11 points with seven rounds and 21 races to go.

Supersport superstar Jack Kennedy proved that what he can do in the dry, he can also do in the wet as Race 2 developed into almighty battle of patience, throttle control and outright bravery. After 19 minutes 49.624 seconds of Race 2 the dauntless Dubliner crossed the line with another race win shooting him into a nine point championship lead aboard the fantastic Honda CBR600RR.

Round five of the championship visits the Norfolk circuit of Snetterton, 14th - 16th July.

#1 Tommy Bridewell

Honestly I couldn't be happier to come away from this weekend with a first, a third and a second.
We came into this weekend 22 points down, so yeah I’m over the moon. Absolutely delighted.

The final race was cut a bit short and the bike was working good, but the conditions were changing lap by lap, it was drying out quite a lot, so it was tough. A really tough race. I just tried to ride clean and maintain the gap to the lead, but also maintain the gap that I had from the chasing pack.

Credit to the CBR1000RR Fireblade SP. It’s really working well now and I feel really good and I’m looking forward to the rest of the season.

Race 2: P3 // Race 3: P2

#18 Andrew Irwin

This weekend honestly you can look at negatives, or you can look at positives.

In the dry I qualified in sixth. The first race yesterday I was third. It probably took me a little bit to get going, but still we fought back. We went back to fourth, the back to second and finished third.

It was a good start this morning in Race 2. I was third when I crashed, but it was only in the fifth or sixth corner and I had quite a big crash.

The at the start of Race 3 I got going okay and I think I was running ninth, eighth or ninth. We had a bit of a problem which stopped us from progressing.

We have to look at the positives. I came from a big crash this morning and didn’t let it affect me. I think we were going forward in that race but that's the way it goes, the team have done a great job, thank you to them for rebuilding the bike and I look forward to a week off before we go testing next week.

I feel like I'm riding in a much better way and I just have to be patient and let it come.

Race 2: DNF // Race 3: DNF

#5 Dean Harrison

Honestly, I've had a really frustrating weekend all in all. The frustrating thing is the lads are good, the bike's good. I've been poor basically. This sounds like a poor excuse, but I felt off all weekend and I've just not got my head into any of it really. So, I look quite a bit lost, because the potential of the bike obviously speaks for itself.

So I'm going to put this one down to experience and start again next time.

Race 2: P17 // Race 3: DNF

#4 Jack Kennedy

I don't think we could have had a better weekend than we've had here at Knock Hill for Round four of the British Supersport championship and we nearly topped every session.

We got our first pole of the year and we've come away with two wins in dry and wet conditions. The team have been faultless. The Honda CBR600RR has been amazing at this Knockhill Circuit. We changed our strategy a little bit from what I normally do here on a 600 and it really paid off to ride a little bit more like the guys at the front are riding to make life hard for them like they make life hard for me and it really paid off. I didn't think the strategy would work on the on the 600 in line four but it has worked really well, so credit to the team for giving me this set up.

The bike’s been faultless and I keep stating how many days the lads have been working for nearly two months straight, no days off and there was no beat missed anywhere so I can't thank my team enough. Everybody knows this is a team sport. Although it's an individual rider out there, without the tools and the team and the atmosphere and everything behind you, you are not going to get the results, so I have to give this weekend to the team because I will always ride to the best of my ability, but if I haven't got the tools and the team, it's not going to happen. So again credit to the team big thanks to all my lads Scott, Tom, Ryan and Matt for everything. Thanks to them.

We look forward to starting in two weeks time when the lads are gonna be working hard behind the scenes and we might have an even stronger bike for the next time, so I can't wait.

Race 2: P1