2023 British Superbikes Brands Hatch Race Results (2)
An appearance from the safety car brought Tommy Bridewell back into play, with him grasping the opportunity to go on and dominate race two at Brand Hatch.
Tommy Bridewell made the most of his second chance at a win, pulling out a huge lead once ahead in Sunday’s opening race at the Kent track.
The BeerMonster Ducati rider started seventh and had made a little progress to fifth by the time the safety car was deployed to allow the air fence to be fixed after a heavy crash for Dean Harrison, which sent his bike up on top of it.
Circulating behind the safety car, the pack bunched back up behind the lead trio of Danny Kent, Christian Iddon and Ryan Vickers, the stars of the wet sprint race on Saturday.
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Once back under way the #46 immediately took Jason O’Halloran, then pulled nearer as Iddon lined up his move on Kent at Hawthorns. By lap twelve Bridewell was up to second then pulled a similar move on Iddon, also at Hawthorns, to take the lead.
Out in front the PBM rider increased his lead lap after lap to lead over the line by 2,406 seconds as his rivals raced it out behind in a tight battle for second.
It is Bridewell’s first win at Brands Hatch and fourth consecutive win in the dry after yesterday’s wet blip in the sprint. A twelfth podium visit for 2023, the win was dedicated to his late brother Ollie.
Iddon and Kent win battle for the podium
Kent was lining up a move on Iddon behind while having to show caution as Glenn Irwin was doing the same behind him.
Iddon managed to hold on to second for Oxford Products Ducati just 0.057s between himself and Kent at the chequered flag.
The #52 also enjoyed consecutive rostrum visits over the wet and dry races, great progress for the rider and his own Lovell Kent team after showing confidence he would run well at Brands after a good run out last year on the unfancied Suzuki.
Irwin was close to the limit and wide at Druids almost every lap, a late wobble as he applied the pressure saw him off the podium in fourth on the second BeerMonster Ducati entry, having made up ten places from where he started.
LAMI OMG Yamaha’s Vickers, who looked assured of a podium return before the safety car finished fifth, with O’Halloran the last of the group in sixth for McAMS Yamaha.
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Kyle Ryde made up places before and after the safety car but was hurt by a grid start of 15th, the #77 had closed in on the group ahead but didn’t have enough track time to catch them, finishing seventh on the second LAMI OMG Yamaha.
Lee Jackson was an improved eighth and top Kawasaki for Cheshire Mouldings after topping warm -up in the morning , while Josh Brookes was again off the pace in ninth but the top BMw for FHO Racing. Jack Kennedy had another strong rider for MAr-Train Yamaha to finish just behind the Australian and complete the top ten.
Charlie Nesbitt was chasing him down but had to settle for eleventh for MasterMac Honda.
It was incredibly close over the line for twelfth with the experienced Peter Hickman (FHO Racing BMW) just holding off Starline Kawasaki’s Storm Stacey.
The remaining points on offer went to rookie Max Cook in 14th on the second Cheshire Holdings bike and Bradley Perie (Lee Hardy Racing Kawasaki)in 15th.The only other rider to complete the race was Liam Delves.
Official British Superbike Brands Hatch Records:
Lap Record: Josh Brookes (Yamaha) 1m 24.873s (2017)
2022 at Brands Hatch:
Round Five- pole: Jason OHalloran (2ndTarran Mackenzie, 3rd Bradley Ray)
Race One:
1:Jason O’Halloran
2:Tarran Mackenzie
3:Tommy Bridewell
Race Two:
1:Tarran Mackenzie
2:Jason O’Halloran
3:Tommy Bridewell
Race Three:
1:Tarran Mackenzie
2:Jason O’Halloran
3:Glenn Irwin
Round 11 (Showdown) pole: Bradley Ray (2nd Jason O’Halloran, 3rd Danny Buchan)
Race One:
1:Glenn Irwin
2:Peter Hickman
3:Andrew Irwin
Race Two:
1:Peter Hickman
2:Danny Buchan
3:Glenn Irwin
Race Three:
1:Glenn Irwin
2:Andrew Irwin
3:Danny Buchan
Last Round - Snetterton:
Pole: Jason O’Halloran (2nd Glenn Irwin, 3rd Tito Rabat)
Race One:
1:Tommy Bridewell
2:Josh Brookes
3:Jason O’Halloran
Race Two:
1: Tommy Bridewell
2:Josh Brookes
3:Leon Haslam
Race Three
1:Tommy Bridewell
2:Glenn Irwin
3:Leon Haslam
Crashes and Injuries and replacements
A three way incident took out Tom Neave, Franco Bourne and Tito Rabat early in the race.
Luke Mossey saw the issue that made him miss the sighting lap and line up of the back of the grid return so he pulled out of the race.
Danny Buchan saw his bad luck continue exiting on the same lap. Jack Scott was next to exit followed by Dean Harrison and his huge fall.
Josh Owens failed to finish, along with Leon Haslam, who had his sixth place removed for being shown the orange/black ‘meatball’ flag before the red flag caused by the oil spill in race one, and had further bike issues take him out of race two with his gear lever hanging off the bike.
Where does that leave the championship?
Tommy Bridewell extended his lead over Glenn Irwin, with his tally now a strong 240 - a 32.5 point gap over his teammate.
With a difficult race for many of the main contenders again Kyle Ryde remains third on 181 and Brookes fourth with 177. Haslam’s DNF sees him stay on 164 in fifth.
