Tommy Bridewell and Andrew Irwin crash out: “A painful end, I’m taking chances”

Tommy Bridewell and Andrew Irwin crashed out on Sunday at Brands Hatch.

Bridewell highsided as he accelerated out of Clearways bend in Race 2 of the British Superbike Championship round.

He withdrew from Race 3, then said: “It was a painful end to a disappointing weekend.

“I’m taking a lot of chances on the bike at the moment because the gap between us and the fastest guys isn’t getting any smaller no matter what we do.

“It’s massively frustrating, there’s very little else to say about where we are currently, but we will keep working to find a solution.”

In Race 3 on Sunday afternoon, his Honda teammate Irwin then endured a big crash.

Damp patches and variable grip caught out Irwin, who emerged uninjured.

Irwin said: “The weekend was going entirely to plan, we were building off the back of finishing all three races at Knockhill and just chipping away at lap times and letting the lap times and the results come to us.

“In the third race, I felt completely comfortable in sixth place. I was in the lead pack and just looking to see what sort of opportunity might arise when out of nowhere, so it seemed, I was suddenly thrown quite a long way up off the bike, which was totally destroyed.

“It’s a big disappointment.”

Bridewell was sixth, and Irwin 11th, in Race 1. Irwin was seventh in Race 2 when Bridewell crashed out.

'Challenging' round where Honda usually 'perform strongly'

In the Supersport class, Honda’s Jack Kennedy crashed out of the lead on Saturday. He went from 15th to sixth on Sunday. Dean Harrison was 12th.

Kennedy said: “If you look at the progression from 15th on the grid to sixth it’s good in those tricky conditions. I had to ride within myself and not risk going down, because after crashing out yesterday we just had to bring it home.

“I certainly didn’t want to wreck another bike after the lads worked so hard to build me a new one last night and again replacing the frame today between warm-up and the race.

“Massive thanks to them for all their work. We’ve had such bad luck with the weather, it rained heavily immediately before each of our races, and made things very tricky. We’ll take the positives out of it and move on to Thruxton.”

Harrison said: “The weekend as a whole hasn’t been too bad. We definitely had the worst of the weather conditions in Supersport, compared to every other class on the schedule this weekend.

“Still, I scored points in both races and while the positions haven’t been ideal it has been a bit of a lottery. Tyre choice was crucial today but the bike’s in one piece and it’s got to be onwards and upwards from here.”

Team manager Havier Beltran said: “It’s been a particularly challenging weekend for us at a circuit where traditionally Honda performs strongly.

“In Supersport, Jack’s team really had their work cut out after his crash on Saturday. First of all the bike had to be rebuilt to get it on track on Sunday morning for Warm-up, when it became clear that actually the core of the bike, the frame, needed replacing, so they had to strip it and effectively build a new bike in two hours.

“Seeing the team rise to challenges like this gives confidence that we can push through an event like this and come out fighting at the next round.”