Brands Podium Keeps Iddon’s Title Hopes Alive

Upon the green flag to recommence the race, Iddon continued to lead but it wasn’t long before he had to succumb to the advances of title rivals Tarran Mackenzie and Tommy Bridewell. 

Circulating in a safe third place, Iddon couldn’t get back on terms with the pair in front and had to settle for third place to record his 14th podium of the season. In doing so, he maintained his third place in the standings and now lies 24 points off leader Mackenzie with tomorrow’s two races of 20 laps each set to determine the outcome of the series.

With 50 points up for grabs still, if Iddon can land the crown, it would be a third successive year that Paul Bird’s Lake District-based team has been declared champions making it a record-breaking nine BSB titles in total. 

Sadly, for outgoing champion Josh Brookes, he couldn’t take points off Iddon’s main rivals and finished in seventh place. The Bedfordshire-based Aussie qualified the VisionTrack Ducati in 12th place on the grid and although he made good progress in the early part of the race, he had to settle for a top seven placing so couldn’t add to his impressive record at Brands Hatch which has seen him win 19 times in the past.

Iddon, who won at Brands Hatch earlier this year, will start tomorrow’s opening race from the front row with Brookes, who celebrated his 300th BSB start in today’s race, again on row four prior to the 33rd and final race of the season later in the afternoon.

Christian Iddon: “The race started off perfectly with a great start and I felt more than comfortable setting the pace at the head of the field. Just like a previous race though, when the safety car came out, the tyres cooled down and when racing got underway again, the grip levels had dropped off considerably. The tyres never came back to me after that, and I didn’t have the pace to go with Tarran and Tommy. It’s frustrating as I need to win races this weekend, but the gap is still only 24 points and I’ll come out swinging tomorrow.”

Josh Brookes: “It was a difficult race and although the qualifying position wasn’t great, I won’t use that as an excuse as I’ve come through from lowly grid positions before. I made quite a poor start but settled into a nice rhythm only for the safety car to come out and when racing resumed, I got pushed back a few places. I made a couple of places back, but I just didn’t have the strong enough lap times to move forward. I tried to as hard as ever to do what was needed but I couldn’t do that. We get two more bites tomorrow so let’s try and end as positively as we can.”

Johnny Mowatt, Team Co-ordinator: “Christian pulled a real good lap out of the bag in qualifying and you could see with all the sliding that he was using his Supermoto experience to the full! He really took the fight to Tarran and Tommy in the race but was just lacking two or three tenths in the final few laps to take it all the way. He’s still in there fighting so hopefully Josh can get involved tomorrow. He was hindered today with his qualifying position and when you’re that far back, whilst you can make up some places, it’s hard to make it to the front. You get stuck with the group you’re with which is what happened, but he’ll be keen to get back at the sharp end tomorrow and help the team to finish as strong as possible.”

Bennetts British Superbike Championship BikeSocial race one (16 laps)

1 Tarran Mackenzie (Yamaha)

2 Tommy Bridewell (Ducati)

3 Christian Iddon (VisionTrack Ducati)

4 Jason O’Halloran (Yamaha)

5 Peter Hickman (BMW)

6 Andrew Irwin (BMW)

7 Josh Brookes (VisionTrack Ducati)

Championship Points

1 T Mackenzie 1152

2 J O’Halloran 1130

3 C Iddon 1128

4 T Bridewell 1126

5 P Hickman 1070

6 D Buchan 1066

7 J Brookes 1056

8 G Irwin 1048

Images courtesy of Double Red: Josh Brookes (25) and Christian Iddon (21)