Cal Crutchlow has snatched back second place in the Bennetts British Superbike standings after scoring a pair of podium finishes at
Mallory Park.
Although he missed out on a chance to make some headway on Shane Byrne's championship lead, Crutchlow was still satisfied to pull a good margin over Leon Camier, who could only manage a best of eighth place.
By contrast, the HM Plant Honda rider produced two strong third place finishes, even if the same result was achieved in two very different ways.
Indeed, Crutchlow was frustrated with his performance in the opening race after leading from the first corner but being unable to get away from the chasing pack. Eventually he was overtaken by both Leon Haslam and Byrne, leaving him on the bottom step of the podium.
“Race one was difficult for us,” he told
Crash.net Radio. “I tried to lead from the front, but I wasn't sure if I was holding people up, but the boys behind never seemed to pull away when they did get past me. I am a bit disappointed with third because I probably should have been second.”
For the damp second race, Crutchlow was one of a few riders to risk fitting slick tyres, a gamble that didn't look to be paying off in the early stages when he dropped out of the top ten. However, with the conditions beginning to improve, Crutchlow quickly established himself as the fastest rider on the circuit to power his way back up to third, just behind Byrne.
“It was dodgy conditions in the second race, but I started on slicks that I hadn't scrubbed because I went to grid on wets. So I had a brand new set of shiny slicks for the start of a wet race, but I tried my hardest.
“I came back from being 16 seconds behind Michael to finish four seconds behind him, but that was the best I could do. I wanted to get Shakey at the end, but he was riding well.”
