Oulton Park BSB: Bridewell double, O'Halloran woe, Mackenzie penalty

Tommy Bridewell has closed to within nine points of the British Superbike lead after a Sunday double at Oulton Park was combined with drama for championship front-runners Jason O'Halloran and Tarran Mackenzie.

Mackenzie's weekend got off to a perfect start with a last-gasp victory over Josh Brookes in Saturday's race 1, after O'Halloran fell from the lead in the closing stages.

Things went from bad to worse for O'Halloran when, after leading all but the final lap of race 2, until a pass by Bridewell, he fell again in race 3 - this time crashing out of eighth when he tucked the front at Cascades.

That meant the Australian doubled his previous two DNFs for the entire season in the space of the Oulton weekend and handed the title advantage to team-mate Mackenzie.

“It’s been a difficult weekend," O'Halloran admitted. "We were leading the race yesterday and crashed, I led every lap of the race [2] this morning and then had another crash in race three.

"It’s not been ideal, I’ve struggled a little bit with the feeling of the front of the bike all weekend and it caught me out twice. I just need to reset, go through things away from the track and make a plan for next weekend to come out stronger.”

But Mackenzie also saw valuable points slip away in the final race when he was handed a 3-second penalty for a late clash with Lee Jackson, dropping him from third to fifth.

Looking on the brightside, Mackzenie said: “Honestly I thought I was going to leave here with a big points gap, so to come out championship leader is amazing.

"I’ve had three strong races here, which I didn’t expect as my hand is still broken, so to be on the podium twice and have a strong third race I can’t really complain.

"We go to Donington and Brands now, two tracks which I really love and have won at before so we’ll look to end the season on a high.”

Meanwhile, Bridewell, who had only taken one win during the main season, dominated the final race to make it two in a row.

The flying Oxford Products Ducati rider now heads to the penultimate Donington Park round just nine points behind new leader Mackenzie, with O'Halloran a mere two points adrift on the other McAMS Yamaha.

"Taz now leads the championship with Jason second and we’ve lost the buffer we had to Tommy, but such is the nature of the showdown," said McAMS team principal Steve Rodgers. "We’re back at square one now with six races to go."

Reigning BSB champion Brookes fell from his VisionTrack Ducati in race 2 but returned to the rostrum with a runner-up finish behind Bridewell in race 3.

Two other riders spraying podium champagne were Brookes' team-mate Christian Iddon (third in race 1) and Rich Energy BMW's Bradley Ray (promoted to third in race 3 after Mackenzie's penalty).

Iddon, who could only manage eleventh in the final Oulton race, is now best of the rest behind Bridewell in the championship battle, but some 33-points from Mackenzie.