Kennedy claims victory number seven

Race Report Saturday 14th September 2024

After a hard-fought day of racing at Oulton Park for round nine of the Bennetts British Superbike Championship, Jack Kennedy notches up win number seven of the season and with it regains the supersport series lead.

But it was a tale of two halves for Honda Racing UK though today at Oulton Park as the spoils of supersport contrasted with an unfortunate DNF in the sole superbike race of the day.

Tommy Bridewell, having made a significant setup change overnight after a challenging Friday, made significant positive progress in a tightly contested qualifying session to secure a vital front-row start for the first showdown race of the year. His margin to pole position was just 0.055 seconds, as less than a tenth of a second covered the top four. However, in the afternoon race, Tommy crashed on the opening lap and thus relinquished the championship lead. Undeterred though he aims to bounce back tomorrow.

Andrew Irwin meanwhile delivered a composed ride to twelfth from eighteenth on the grid to score yet more valuable championship points.

It was in supersport though that the celebrations came, as Jack Kennedy delivered on the promise of his second on the grid slot to seize the lead at precisely the right moment in the race. Having stalked championship rival Stapleford for the duration of the race, a decisive move into the lead paid dividends come a late race red flag. Thus, win number seven was chalked onto the board and with it a championship lead of two points.

Dean Harrison struggled to capitalise on the strong pace he had shown yesterday in free practice from sixth on the grid as he lost touch with the leading group when pushed wide early in the race. He is convinced however that there is more potential to be realised tomorrow.

#18 Andrew Irwin

The results today don’t reflect our potential at all, and they are certainly not the results that I go racing to achieve. But, it is important to draw all of the positives from the day. We moved forward in the race and scored points, our pace has improved as the weekend has gone on and I am confident that heading into tomorrow we can make some more progress to be in a more competitive position.

Race 1 - 12th

#1 Tommy Bridewell

It goes without saying it’s obviously not the result that we wanted. We were a little lost in setup yesterday in truth so the team made a big change overnight which was the right direction for sure and enabled us to put the bike on the front row. It’s frustrating to crash out and not get any championship points, but look, there is only one time of the year when leading the championship matters and that's after race three at Brands. There’s work to do tomorrow but we will get our head down and go again.

Race 1 - DNF

#4 Jack Kennedy

I knew the pace was going to be crazy in that race and it absolutely was, we were running at lap record pace once more which just shows how competitive it is this year. I was happy to see that we had a gap behind us that was increasing, which meant it was just the two of us that I had to focus on. Luke was stronger in certain parts of the track and I was stronger in others, and I was just trying to size up a move. It was around the time of the race that I wanted to make a move and he made a small mistake, got a bit of wheelie and missed a gear, and I knew that it was my time to pounce. I wasn’t sure we had got it when the red flag came out but I am more than happy to take the win. To take it to Luke on the bigger capacity bike around here at a circuit that we know he is strong at is testament to the team, myself and all of the work that we have done with the CBR600RR. I’m looking forward to going again tomorrow.

Race 1 - 1st

#5 Dean Harrison

I got pushed right to the edge of the track at the start and it cost me a load of time, which meant I dropped into the second group. After that I just got stuck running at their pace rather than the pace that we had in practice. It’s frustrating because I know we had the pace for a better result than seventh, but we know we need to make a change for tomorrow to make it a bit easier to pass.

Race 1 - 7th