Saturday at Snetterton is wild, wet and windy

Race Report Saturday 6th July 2024

In wet and windy conditions that belied an early July scheduling in the calendar, Honda Racing UK rounded out a Saturday of mixed fortunes as Andrew Irwin secured a seventh and Dean Harrison equalled his season-best result in eleventh. But it was heartbreak for both Tommy Bridewell and Jack Kennedy as they crashed out of their respective races.

Track activity throughout the day was heavily disrupted by rain showers of varying intensities, making it challenging for all four of Honda’s riders to navigate both the stop-start nature of the day and indeed the slippery circuit conditions.

Tommy Bridewell and Andrew Irwin both delivered composed performances in qualifying to occupy the leading positions on row two whilst Dean Harrison qualified his Fireblade in seventeenth. Jack Kennedy meanwhile too expertly balanced the risk and reward of qualifying in the wet to secure a fifth-place grid spot in Supersport.

In the sole Bennetts British Superbike race of the day, a rapidly drying track made tyre choice and setup a gamble for the entire field, as teams up and down the grid weighed up their options. All three Honda riders opted to fit wet fronts and an intermediate rear, assuming that the forecast would remain clear and a dry line would slowly appear. As the lights went out and with a wet track beneath them though, others who had opted for full wet tyres raced ahead and pulled out a large gap. At the time of the red flag on lap nine, Tommy was down in tenth, Andrew sixteenth and Dean was back in twenty-second.

The restart was then delayed as the heavens opened and the race distance was reduced. It was full wets for all and a five-lap dash for glory. All three riders made great starts in this second attempt at race one. There was drama for Bridewell though as contact with another rider early in lap one caused damage to his gear lever and ultimately caused his early race exit as he crashed out.

Andrew Irwin and Dean Harrison though were navigating the treacherous conditions expertly to solid point-scoring finishes of seventh and eleventh respectively. A strong start to the weekend in difficult conditions for both riders with Dean equalling his best finish of the year to date.

In another disrupted race due to the weather, Jack Kennedy delivered a sublime performance for all but the final lap of his Supersport showing. He put together a dominant performance from fifth on the grid, passing multiple riders to get through to the lead and then pull away from the field, only to suffer heartbreak at turn one on the final lap crashing out of the race.

The Honda Racing UK team will be back in action again tomorrow.

#18 Andrew Irwin

It was one of those races when you just don’t want to do anything stupid, I just wanted to be sensible and build into the race. Unfortunately, it was only a five-lap race because I was actually feeling really good as the race went on. Seventh is a solid start to the weekend, yes it's not an amazing result but it is a solid platform on which we can build. We have a good grid slot for the opening race tomorrow too and I am feeling good so let’s keep the momentum going and see what we can do tomorrow.

Race 1 - P7

#5 Dean Harrison

To have equalled my best result of the year so far in what has been a challenging weekend is good to be fair. The conditions have been all over the place and we’ve had a few little problems that have cost us some track time too. So all things considered I think it has been a good day and I am happy to have scored some good solid points. I still think that there is more to come, and we can take what we’ve learnt from today into tomorrow.

Race 1 - P11

#1 Tommy Bridewell

It’s been a challenging day, the conditions have been tricky and we’ve had to contend with a few red flags here and there too. I think we made the right call in the first race and we were slowly starting to come back at the guys ahead on full wets but then the red flag just came at the wrong time and we didn't get the chance to get going. Then the next time out it was only five laps. I made a good start in that second one, but then I had contact with Max early in the lap which damaged my gear lever and the quickshifter. That then meant the shifter wasn’t working properly which caused me to crash out at the next corner. We go again tomorrow.

Race 1 - DNF

#4 Jack Kennedy

I’m really happy with our performance today in the wet and tricky conditions. Starting from the second row we managed to get through to the front, I was really eagre to get to the front to manage my visibility because the spray here can be difficult to manage. I wanted to be at the front and set my own pace, which we did and it stretched everybody. I think we had the race in hand and all in control, but unfortunately I just had a big high side out of turn one on the last lap. I’m really frustrated with myself, I usually manage those situations but I find this circuit very difficult to predict in the wet because some of the different surfaces here are very hard to predict and I got caught out. In wet tricky conditions these things can happen to the best of the best. We will take all of the positives away from today, I’m lucky to walk away uninjured and we are in a good position to go out tomorrow and have another go. The team will give me a great bike and we are looking forward to tomorrow and whatever weather it brings.

Race 1 - DNF