Treble Top For Brilliant Bridewell At Snetterton
BeerMonster Ducati rider Tommy Bridewell was in scintillating form at round five of the 2023 Bennetts British Superbike Championship at Snetterton with a hat-trick of victories increasing his advantage at the top of the table as he left the Norfolk track unbeaten.
The Wiltshire ace followed up his BikeSocial Sprint race win yesterday with a superb double victory today to extend his championship lead to 25 points over teammate Glenn Irwin, who took second and fourth place finishes today to make it 20 podiums for the team after the first five rounds.
Bridewell and Irwin lined up in first and third respectively for the opening 16-lap race today, but a red flag brought the race to a premature halt on just the seventh lap, and it was restarted over eight laps.
Tommy slotted into third with Glenn in fifth on the opening lap of the restart and a lap later, Bridewell was up to second on the F23-specification BeerMonster V4R Ducati before on lap three, he was in the lead after overhauling the fast-starting Josh Brookes. From there, he never looked back and increased his lead on each lap, eventually taking the chequered flag by 1.6 seconds from Brookes for his second win of the weekend.
Ulsterman Irwin had a more eventful race, dropping back to sixth at one point, and it looked as if fifth was the best he could hope for. However, he dug deep and on the final lap moved ahead of Jason O’Halloran to take his second fourth position of the weekend.
The final race went over the full 16-lap distance and saw both Tommy and Glenn dispute the lead with Brookes, Leon Haslam, and Ryan Vickers. Positions changed throughout but when Brookes went out, Irwin took over in front with Bridewell moving up to second with three laps to go.
Tommy then took over the lead and ultimately held on although it was mightily close with his eventual margin of victory over Glenn just 0.032 seconds as they flashed across the line at the end of the hard-fought race.
It was Bridewell’s first ever multiple win in the series and the third 1-2 for Paul Bird’s Lake District-based team this season as his riders remained first and second in the title race heading to the next round at Brands Hatch in a fortnight.
Tommy Bridewell:
“What can I say!? It’s been a great weekend and these types of meetings don’t come around too often, so I’m delighted to take my first ever treble. We’ve hardly changed the bike all weekend and the team absolutely hit the nail on the head with set-up so a huge thanks to them. It was nice to go toe to toe with Glenn in the final race with neither of us willing to give an inch, but it was good, clean racing. I focused on preserving the tyre in the early stages and we exchanged places on more than one occasion, so it was nice to come out on top and get the job done.”
Glenn Irwin:
“We could have come away with three second place finishes this weekend but have had to settle for a second and two fourths, so it hurt us in the points although we’ve managed to consolidate second in the standings. I lost time in the first race battling with Jason and it would have been better if we’d have worked together but I was finally able to take a podium in the final race. I stayed patient when Josh was leading and when he went out, I tried to keep a little in reserve but when Tommy came by, I wanted to get back into the lead straight away. It was a good battle with Tommy so hats off to him; I never gave up and am happy with the result.”
Johnny Mowatt, Team Coordinator:
“It’s been a fantastic weekend and to be sitting here with both Tommy and Glenn on four wins apiece and with 20 podiums in total is phenomenal. Tommy’s been a revelation this weekend; we sat down before we got here and spoke about only having one win so far this season and now was the time to kick on and make his championship challenge. It’s fair to say he’s done exactly that and sent out a message to the rest of the field. From Glenn’s perspective, he was unlucky not have been on the podium in all three races and he got caught in some silly battles in the first race today, which upset his rhythm. We made some small changes to the bike for the final race, and he was able to fight at the front, the end result being another 1-2 for the team. Both riders are giving everything so we’ll look forward to Brands Hatch now, which should be another strong circuit for us.”
Bennetts British Superbike Championship race two (8 laps)
1 Tommy Bridewell (BeerMonster Ducati)
2 Josh Brookes (BMW)
3 Leon Haslam (BMW)
4 Glenn Irwin (BeerMonster Ducati)
5 Jason O’Halloran (Yamaha)
6 Danny Kent (Honda)
Bennetts British Superbike Championship race three (16 laps)
1 Tommy Bridewell (BeerMonster Ducati)
2 Glenn Irwin (BeerMonster Ducati)
3 Leon Haslam (BMW)
4 Ryan Vickers (Yamaha)
5 Christian Iddon (Ducati)
6 Jason O’Halloran (Yamaha)
Championship Positions (after five rounds)
1 Bridewell 217pts
2 Irwin 192
3 Ryde 171
4 Brookes 168
5 Haslam 164
6 O’Halloran 133
Pictures courtesy of Double Red: Glenn Irwin (2) and Tommy Bridewell (46)
