Bridewell And Irwin Salvage Points At Thruxton
Despite a tough day at round seven of the Bennetts British Superbike Championship at Thruxton today, Tommy Bridewell maintained his series lead despite only managing a 14th place finish in the BikeSocial Sprint race whilst BeerMonster Ducati teammate Glenn Irwin consolidated his second position in the title race when placed ninth.
Both riders enjoyed a solid day of practice on Friday in fine conditions at the Hampshire venue and although today saw some morning showers, they’d disappeared in time for the afternoon’s eBay qualifying session. The 2.35-mile circuit was dry all the way round although it was a mixed session for the team with Glenn in eighth and Tommy in an unfamiliar 15th on the grid.
That set the tone for the remainder of the day and the 14-lap race proved to be equally challenging with neither rider able to make a significant impression although it was an extremely close race with less than ten seconds covering the first 15 riders.
With tyre wear a factor around the high-speed circuit, it was Irwin who was able to claim the best result in ninth and with Bridewell in 14th, it means the gap between the two in the championship standings came down to 29.5 points.
However, with the main rivals to Paul Bird’s two riders not scoring heavily, the pair remain in first and second positions in the title race going into tomorrow’s two races.
Tommy Bridewell: “We’re all having to run the harder SCD tyre this weekend and it’s hurting us more than we expected, certainly more than our rivals, and we’ve been unable to get any form of mechanical grip. We’ve made big changes throughout the weekend, but the feeling has remained the same, so it’s understandably been frustrating, and I didn’t think it would be this tough. That’s no excuse for a poor performance though; I should be better, I expect to be better, and I need to be better and that’s the undoubted aim for tomorrow. Track position will be key, and it will be interesting to see how things change for the whole field with six extra laps.”
Glenn Irwin: “I knew it would be tough this weekend, for a number of reasons, but whilst we have good drive, we’ve hardly any edge grip and that’s hurting us as you’re on the edge of the tyre so much here at Thruxton. The positives are that I was in a fight for sixth and I felt as strong, if not stronger, than some of the other riders around me. It’s so difficult to fight though without that edge grip but I fought hard and I'm happy enough. I wouldn’t usually be happy with a ninth, but I was close to the top six and that’s what we’ll take into tomorrow's races where we’ll be looking to finish higher up the leaderboard in both races.”
Johnny Mowatt, Team Co-ordinator: “It wasn’t a round we were overly optimistic about and with every bike having its strengths and disadvantages, this is a circuit that highlights our weaknesses. Having said that, we hoped for more and the results are clearly not what we hoped for although we were fortunate not to lose more points to our rivals. We know we have four strong circuits coming up, but we want to improve tomorrow and get the most out of the two races that we possibly can. We know we can do more and maximising our points haul in the two races on Sunday is the clear aim.”
Bennetts British Superbike Championship – BikeSocial Sprint race (14 laps)
1 Jason O’Halloran (Yamaha)
2 Charlie Nesbitt (Honda)
3 Ryan Vickers (Yamaha)
4 Max Cook (Kawasaki)
5 Lee Jackson (Kawasaki)
6 Leon Haslam (BMW)
9 Glenn Irwin (BeerMonster Ducati)
14 Tommy Bridewell (BeerMonster Ducati)
Championship standings
1 Bridewell 260pts
2 Irwin 230.5
3 Ryde 189
4 Haslam 182
5 Brookes 178
6 O’Halloran 176.5
Pictures courtesy of Double Red: Glenn Irwin (2) and Tommy Bridewell (46) at Thruxton
