Tag Archives: Josh Brookes

Josh Brookes on BSB, parity, ASBK, WorldSBK and MotoGP

Josh Brookes Interview

Trevor Hedge: G’day Josh, thought we were probably more than overdue for a quick chat, so thanks for your time today. You have been doing some adventure riding again this time while home, a bit of that two-up with your wife, what have been the highlights of some of those travels?

Josh Brookes: “It’s just been local stuff really this time around, but at the start of the last year, just before I left to go back to the UK for last season, we went down to Tassie and did a five-day ride, which was great. The temperature wasn’t ideal though, you’d think march in Australia would be quite warm still, but Tassie can be still quite cold.. I hadn’t been there at all even during all my racing career in Australia, so it was a good experience to see more of the country.  I also travelled with a sponsor Milspec, Steve Burns, and some of his friends. So it was good to catch up with them as it’s important, with the limited time I have here in Australia, to be able to spend some time with people who support my racing.”

You were out at the St. George Summer Series at SMSP the other week, were you tempted to try and organise a bike to ride?  Although a spare Panigale R is probably not all that easy to come by, and I guess due to contractual reasons that would be the only bike you would be allowed to race?

Brookes: “That’s all true and correct, I would like to, I mean I just like riding Eastern Creek – I know they call it Sydney Motorsport Park – but I still call it Eastern Creek. It’s just a good track, and to have it under lights as well adds another element. I look forward to the chance to get to ride the circuit again and if it’s at one of the St George races even better. But unless I’m riding a Ducati it’s not politically correct.”

Trev: The 2021 BSB season seemed to be quite a difficult season at times for you, there was some paddock talk that the bikes had a new and more powerful engine for last season that made it really hard to get the power down, is that correct? Or what is the real story about what held you back at times?

Brookes: “Yes to a degree, that’s it, the engine got updated from ‘19 to ‘20 and then updated again in 2021, obviously with every motivation to make things better, as nobody intends to make it worse, that’s not the motive, but the team committed to the latest spec’ engine and purchased them all ready for this season, and as the rounds went on it was becoming more evident to me that there was a problem.

“So when you know that chassis wise it is all exactly the same, and we even swapped swing-arms to check it wasn’t that, plus I had a crash in testing so we put a new chassis in, just to make sure it wasn’t any of these other elements that could be contributing, and all we were left to think was that it was the spec’ of the engine, because everything else seemed more or less the same.

“We were left to wonder, was it our spec’ ECU, the engine has improved but the fact we don’t have the ability to tune it the way other series do. Is that where the element or area of question is? Or is it just purely the engine, for gaining more top power lost its efficiency in corners?

“So, I wouldn’t say it was harder to ride, the bike felt very linear in the power but it just didn’t have any grip, maybe something to do with the harmonics of the engine, it’s getting a bit technical, but it wasn’t that it was difficult, it was that it didn’t perform in regards to grip.

“You know it was harder on the tyre and just didn’t drive off the turn the way I am used to, and at least to match my competitors, so something was lost through the search for more power. But the desire to get more power was achieved, because we topped almost every top speed for all the tracks. But if there was a speed check that was on the exit of the corner, I would have been well down that list. But if it was just middle of a long straight I was always top, or in the top two. But most times top. So that’s more or less what I was dealing with.”

There were not enough of these moments for Josh in 2021 – Image Dave Yeomans

Trev: On the metric of race wins and podiums, you are the second most successful rider in British Superbike history, 54 wins and 147 podiums across four different brands of machinery, Ducati, Yamaha, Suzuki and Honda. Two titles, four-time runner up. Only six-time BSB champ Shane Byrne has more wins and podiums. You have also been inducted into the BSB Legends. That’s a mighty record indeed, and one you can be justifiably proud of.  Amongst all that success, what are a couple of your most memorable moments in BSB?

Josh Brookes 2015 British Superbike Champion
Josh Brookes 2015 British Superbike Champion

Brookes: “I mean it’s hard to go past the championships, they are the thing that everybody strives for and for the two that I’ve won, they easily stand out for highlights for me. Probably the next biggest highlight or standout point was 2017 when I just came back from WorldSBK and I rode for an independent team that everybody kind of shunned, and was thought it was a lower quality bike and team than what you would think would get anywhere near the top and I was able to win races and narrowly missed out on the championship by just three points.

Two Aussies spray the champagne - Race victor Josh Brookes and second placed Jason O'Halloran - Image by Jon Jessop
Two Aussies spray the champagne at the Brands Hatch BSB finale in 2017 – Race victor Josh Brookes and second placed Jason O’Halloran – Brookes is especially proud of what he achieved with the Anvil Tag Team that season – Image by Jon Jessop

“It was a number of weekends where I thought if I hadn’t made that mistake or crashed here that would have easily made those three points I needed up, so that was quite a standout year really. Particularly because it was independent private, family run team, there was no special access to anything, parts, wires, or special treatment for anything. It was all just a private family run team, so to get second was as good as winning in some ways.”

Josh Brookes - Donington 2017
Josh Brookes with Anvil Tag Team Owner Rob Winfield – Donington 2017 – Image by Jon Jessop

Trev: McAMS Yamaha were fairly dominant in 2021, and we nearly saw another Australian crowned champion with Jason O’Halloran scoring so many wins only to be gazumped at the final juncture by his team-mate under BSB’s Showdown regimen. We are yet to see the official rev limits that are to be imposed for each motorcycle under BSB’s parity regimen for the start of season 2022. What’s your take on how that worked in 2021, and your thoughts about the system used by BSB in regards to trying to equalise the field?

Brookes: “I think it works really well, if the question was ‘what do you think makes the BSB so strong,’ I think it is that parity between the bikes, the spec’ ECU that everybody has to run, the adjustments they make to keep – as you say – parity between teams and bikes, I think that works perfectly.

“Obviously I’ve got a biased opinion, but I don’t think that last year the championship stepped up a notch, I think it was that we lost performance, so I don’t think there’s anything wrong with the bike, or the rules, or how it’s been policed, or designed. That was our own issue from my point of view, my own or our own area of lack of performance that stopped us from being more competitive.

“I wouldn’t try and reflect that on the design of the championship and I do genuinely think that the parity between bikes is ideal, because at some tracks you get Suzuki winning, at other tracks the Ducati are stronger, and then obviously the Yamahas are good at their strong tracks too. BMW did get good results too… so it doesn’t really favour any bike and doesn’t really hinder any either, so I think it’s a well-rounded design that they’ve got for the bikes spec…”

Trev: The control MoTeC unit employed by BSB, with no ‘traction control’ system allowed. I, and I am sure my readers, would also be interested in your thoughts in regards to that situation. There is still a massive amount of time, and money to pay for that time, invested in getting the best out of the electronic systems available to you in BSB. Do you think the banning of ‘traction control’ per se, could be a false economy somewhat as teams then spend so much time essentially trying to work around those restrictions to try and provide riders with traction?

Brookes: “No, not at all, I don’t feel like and I haven’t heard comments from any other riders or teams to feel that they feel like that either. My opinion is that it does work, it does limit the costs, does mean that independent teams have equal opportunity as factory ones, because even a factory team in BSB is still a private run team, just with a factory banner sort of thing. So I think that the whole way that the ECU is controlled is part of the previous statement, saying how well rounded the series is and how well matched, and I think the ECU is heavily influencing that balance. Without going into every small detail, I think the answer is that it’s a good thing and I don’t think there’s any negatives around it at this point.”

Trev: I still hear anecdotes that might be right or wrong, that some BSB teams still employ full time one, or perhaps even two guys, that just concentrate on electronics smarts. Is that true? Are people still spending that sort of money despite the control ECU? Do you still see from your experience such a massive investment in time even with an ECU that like you say, is quite well controlled?

Brookes: “Every team does have a specific person, there is someone that has that skillset, even though there’s a control ECU, there’s equally a lot of tuning you can do, throttle maps, torque curves, and engine brake control, fueling, stuff like that, it’s still very complex world, when you’re not trained in that area. So I think it is still absolutely necessary to have a data person in each team, and I think it’s a necessary evil, the cost of one person isn’t going to bankrupt a team… if for a BSB team the difference between being able to race competitively or not, or not being able to race at all is over one staff member, I think they are out of their depth – in a lot of ways – because one crash can often do the damage of what some of these staff members are on for a year.

“So I don’t think the costs of the data person is enough to say it’s a negative. But racing is expensive, let’s not get away from the fact that racing motorcycle is an expensive and luxury sort of sport, so it’s just to try and you know, for the lack of a better word, instead of taking the piss and letting it get out of hand – like the money that some teams spend in World Superbike for example – the British Championship has been able to step a long way back from those expenses and that’s due to only needing let’s say one data guy and the ECU package has been affordable from the get go.”

Engine brake controls are something you’d spend a significant amount of time mapping? Can you map corner by corner and have engine brake control corner by corner, with the MoTeC ECU that you use in BSB?

Brookes: “No not corner by corner, there’s a heavy focus on engine brake that’s probably one of the main areas of adjustment during a race weekend, or at least with communication between me and the crew. I don’t know the correct terminology, but it’s a very two dimensional platform. I don’t know if that’s the correct term, but it’s basically you can’t make changes unless you come  into the pits and plug in, and changes are made at that point. The engine brake is controlled by rpm vs wheel speed and stuff like that, so it’s fixed figures. It doesn’t change corner by corner, or use GPS or anything fancy like that. It allows it to make adjustments to the bike so that people can set the bike to their personal preference, but it doesn’t make it a laptop championship. It’s still down to the rider, but it’s how well I guess the crew and the rider can communicate what they want to achieve and how to go about achieving that.”

Trev: You’ve still got to do your best with the tools provided… What’s your thoughts about ASBK currently being fairly open in regards to electronics, as now we have some pretty sophisticated electronic packages available on some of the bikes. We have systems on some of the ASBK bikes that are capable of corner by corner engine torque maps, and corner by corner engine braking control maps, by the rules our ASBK bikes are not allowed to use the corner to corner functionality, but M.A. technical staff don’t actually have the tools to plug in to the bikes and see if any of the teams here are using that functionality, so it is effectively unpoliced… What’s your thoughts on that, and what we should be doing back here at home?

Brookes: “I’m only saying it because purely because it works in BSB, I don’t have any other evidence to back up my claim, but purely from my own experience racing in British Superbike, I think that the controlled ECU is a cost effective yet not limiting option, so if you have got skills and feedback that can improve the bike, you have the ability to adjust, it just doesn’t have a price tag which is outside of most team’s reach.

“I wouldn’t be keen to say what I think should happen, but if there was a way for Australia to develop or somehow tailor their championship regulations off of what they can see the BSB are doing, that’s proven to work well, and in my opinion that would be a good thing. Because like you’ve explained, some of the teams have probably gone to a level now which most private riders teams wouldn’t be able to imagine purchasing, let alone having the ability to tune…”

Trev: There is also a worldwide testing ban for all riders on the 2022 Bennetts BSB Official Provisional Entry List in force from January 1 through to March 10, and then from March 11 through to October 13 testing will be restricted to 12 days only at permanent circuits, and those 12 days are inclusive of the official BSB Tests, which pretty much means if you do the official tests you are allowed essentially no extra testing at all during the season, outside of the official ones. What are your thoughts in regards to these testing restrictions?

Brookes: “It’s a double edged sword, me personally on a selfish level I’d like to test more. But the reality of it, cost-wise, circuit availability, cost of staff for those extra days, how the team obviously put their package into the budget, and doing the official tests before the season is sort of what they’ve calculated for.

“Last year it almost made it impossible to do any extra testing anyway, because rather than starting in April and running 12 rounds till October we started in I think June and ran 11 rounds into October, so it was the same amount of rounds nearly, minus one, but had three races per round to make up the difference which heavily increased the amount of races we had, so the reality of trying to add testing into that program as well, probably would have become quite problematic.

“I think this year being that the championship starts in April and is spread out over more space and time, I’m gonna kind of want to do more testing, but that’s the rules, as long as it’s the same for everybody, it’s like the ECU, as long as no one else is getting an advantage, it doesn’t have any burden or disadvantage on anyone.”

Trev: There has been no official announcements from the team you rode for in 2021, Visiontrack Ducati, about their plans for 2022, will you be with them again in BSB this season on a Ducati?

Brookes: “We had an agreement made before the end of season last year, but I think the reason for having no press releases and the like, is that I believe at the moment the team is in the process of trying to bring new people into the racing sponsorship world, so if and when that’s achieved is when announcements will be made. They will try and put as much focus on a new sponsors as possible but for the moment it’s just an agreement that we know we’ve got.”

Josh Brookes will be on a V4 R again this season – Image Dave Yeomans

Trev: I know you are a keen follower of motocross and supercross.  Have you been following the progress and success of the Lawrence boys over in America? And who is your tip for the MXGP title this season?

Brookes: “I don’t follow the MXGP a great deal, I once did a bit more because of Cairoli, and Herlings and there’s some old key names that I like to hear of where they are finishing and how they are going. I knew that Cairoli was retiring at the end of last season, so I was kind of  paying attention to where he was running as it was his final year. As a general rule though when it’s in front of me I watch it, but I don’t have a religious sort of thing where every time it’s on I sit down to watch it. I have a pretty busy lifestyle.

“You’d have to be a blind and deaf person not to have seen the success of the Lawrence brothers last year, so I mean anyone that’s Australian that’s got any interest in motorbikes would have been excited for Hunter and Jett to watch them do what they are doing. It’s good, I’ve kept an eye on what was happening and it was good to see some Aussie guys going to the top, so I’ll keep focusing on that. Most of my motocross stuff is focused on myself personally, getting out as often as I can and trying to ride as opposed to the sit down and watching other people have the fun…”

Trev: World Superbike was certainly an interesting season in 2021, what thoughts do you have, if any, on the Razgat versus Rea battles and how your old team-mate Scott Redding went? And who is your tip for 2022?

Brookes: “I was a bit disappointed that Scott wasn’t able to do more, we were definitely rivals in 2019 and being in the same team stirred the pot a bit, but for 2020 and last year I kind of wanted Scott to do well. During the season when you race against them, you kind of cursing every time he does well, and then the very following year you’re sort of finding yourself promoting what he is doing. So I was hoping more, for Scott, I don’t know his personal circumstances, with the bike or the team, so I can’t comment on why his performances weren’t stronger.

“Then Jonny and Toprak were exciting to watch, it was good, so for the first time for a long time, I’ve been interested in following what’s been happening in the World Superbikes. I feel guilty as a motorcycle racer and fan of motorbike racing to say that World Superbikes kind of got a bit stale. And I feel that Jonny’s success has contributed to that, not that it’s Jonny’s fault, anyone that would have won repeatedly like he did would start to get the same sort of reaction. Even I think, when there was a period when Valentino seemed to win everything, and then also when Marquez was appearing to just win every weekend, it was sort of almost got a bit ‘eh.’ There wasn’t enough excitement, which motorbikes have always been able to claim being exciting spectator sport. It’s always had that claim to fame so when you see it sort of becoming a bit boring, it’s quite upsetting. It’s known for being such an exciting watch, and it’s sort of become a bit mundane. So any time there’s a strong rivalry at the front it’s good…”

Trev: Some of those braking maneuvers by Toprak were just unlike anything I’ve ever seen before, with the back wheel in the air from about 200 metres back, then carrying all the way nearly to the apex with the back still off the ground and the bike already getting a fair bit of lean angle. It was just ludicrous really, pretty good fun to see though…

There were times Razgatlioglu was like this for a couple of hundred metres, almost all the way to the apex and carrying lean angle… – Image 2snap

Brookes: “Yes as a rider myself, and someone racing, it’s good to see people finding new limits, it kind of motivates yourself to look where you can change and improve, in areas that you can do things different. You know, it’s not a new sport, unlike freestyle motocross, the amount of change you’ve seen in that game in the last 10 years is unreal. Or if you go back 20 years let’s say, the change you’ve seen at the top of the sport is mind blowing. Unfortunately because road racing is such an old sport and been going for such a long period of time, change at the top and things that riders can do is sort of limited, so when you do see someone doing something different it’s encouraging that the limit hasn’t been found. There’s still areas to explore and things you can do that for most people would end up in a crash, but if someone can prove it doesn’t always have to be a crash it can be controlled, it opens your mind up to what else can be achieved. So I think it’s all positive stuff.”

Trev: Your thoughts on MotoGP season 2021 and who would you like to see win in 2022?

Brookes: “It was good, I mean it’s good to see a lot of new names in the championship, but then to see Valentino finish the way he did, felt unjust – like I said earlier I don’t have a lot of evidence to back up my comments but – I don’t feel like he was on a competitive bike last year, so to watch him finish his racing career when he was such a highlight for all of my racing time, it was a bit I guess an anti-climax. I felt disappointed that he didn’t have an opportunity to do better on his final year.

“I think Quartararo was a deserving winner, throughout the year he showed class, and consistency, and it was a deserving championship win for him. I really find looking into next year it’s probably one of the most difficult years for me to say who I think would be the strong, or the pick of the bunch. There’s so many variables with the bikes improving throughout the off-season, the question marks around Marc and how his condition is, there’s so many little elements to each person’s story that makes it very difficult to put a good idea together as to who is going to be the best.”

Brookesy says Quartararo was a deserving champion – Image 2snap

Trev: Who would you want to win in MotoGP?

Brookes: “I suppose people are going to say it’s because I ride for Ducati, but one of the Ducati guys would be a nice change, I mean obviously being an Australian it would be awesome to see Jack Miller become the champ but in the most respectful way, I just don’t know if he’s got the last couple of per cent that a couple of others have got. I don’t know what that is, I couldn’t say. I don’t know what he’s missing, but it seems like over the course of a year he’s just missing something, maybe something that can be found in himself, or his team or his bike for this new year. I do feel like in one way I’d like to see him win, but do I think he could do it? I’m hesitant; I’m on the side of saying no, I don’t know if he can. But I would love to see him pull it all together and do it. 

“Even to see one of the satellite Ducati’s come through, it feels like Ducati have been trying so hard, and the reason I feel like that is because they seem to be the ones pushing the envelope of development, bringing out the wings first, and all these little quirks that the rest of the teams and brands seem to follow. I think that because they’ve been so long on the cutting edge, it would be justified if they could put a championship win under their belt.”

Trev: Thanks for your time today Josh, and all the best for this coming season.

Source: MCNews.com.au

Jason O’Halloran scores Oulton Park hat trick

2021 British Superbike Championship
Round One – Oulton Park

Images by David Yeoman


Jason O’Halloran has dominated the opening round of the British Superbike Championship in style, adding two more wins to his Saturday victory to grab a handy lead in the championship. Defending Champion Josh Brookes took a 7-6 result on Sunday, improving but still struggling to resolve some issues from Saturday.

Jason O’Halloran made it three from three at Oulton Park

Jack Kennedy won the Supersport class, despite tying on points with Bradley Perie, with Aussie Ben Currie third overall with a 3-4 result.

Ben Currie

Taylor Mackenzie took the Superstock win, ahead of Luke Mossey and Billy McConnell. Levi Day finished seventh, just ahead of Brayden Elliott, with New Zealand’s Damon Rees 19th and Shane Richardson 21st.

Billy McConnell

Casey O’Gorman took the British Talent Cup win, with a double win, with Evan Belford and Carter Brown leaving the weekend tied on 36-points.

In the Junior Superstock it was Jack Nixon claiming the race wins and championship lead, with George Stanley and Joe Talbot second and third respectively. Aussie Seth Crump ran 15-19 and claimed a championship point.

Seth Crump

British Superbike

O’Halloran had been victorious in yesterday’s curtain raiser and he carried his momentum into today’s action for the McAMS Yamaha team.

Jason O'Halloran proved the man to beat at Oulton Park
Jason O’Halloran proved the man to beat at Oulton Park

O’Halloran hounded Iddon throughout the second race of the weekend, but despite several earlier attempts at a pass, he couldn’t get ahead.

Christian Iddon
Christian Iddon

The Australian was determined to return to winning ways at Oulton Park though and he pulled off an exuberant last corner move on Iddon into Lodge on the brakes to secure the win.

Peter Hickman meanwhile, had been battling in the early stages with the leading pair, before arm pump struck later in the race. The FHO Racing BMW rider showed determination to hold onto third place and claim the team’s maiden podium finish on its debut weekend – also the first for the new BMW M 1000 RR.

Peter Hickman

SYNETIQ BMW’s Danny Buchan was able to move his way up the order into fourth place, just ahead of Bradley Ray and Tarran Mackenzie, who had overcome a collision with Tommy Bridewell to regain ground before the chequered flag.

The rivalry between O’Halloran and Iddon continued in the final race of the triple-header as the pair went head-to-head for the final time in Cheshire. Iddon once again got a lightning start off the line to lead O’Halloran on the opening lap with Hickman again tucked into third after his pole position start.

Jason O’Halloran

O’Halloran was shadowing Iddon throughout the race and on more than one occasion looked to try to find a way ahead, but the VisionTrack Ducati rider kept holding him at bay.

The victory would once again come down to a final lap decider as O’Halloran made a brave overtake on the run down Lakeside to lead into Shell Oils corner.

Jason O’Halloran – P1

“It has been a great weekend and it couldn’t have gone any better, so I need to thank everyone at McAMS Yamaha. Race two was a comfortable race and Christian was setting a good pace and I was looking for somewhere to get ahead but it wasn’t working out. I got out of the seat and then got a good run out of Druids and was as close as ever so I just thought ‘let’s try’. I don’t know how I did get it stopped, but I did and then I just had enough to the line so I was happy with that. In the third race, I had been lining Christian up for a move at Shell, but when I tried there a couple of times I didn’t think I could make a clean pass as he was strong there. He gapped me in some other places and I was a bit worried as I knew it wasn’t just the two of us at the front. I left it until the last lap again and I got a great run out of Cascades and hung on to his draft a little bit and went for the move and got through. I thought he might have come back at me, but to start the season with three wins was a perfect weekend for me.”

Jason O’Halloran

Iddon tried to retaliate but had to settle for second, his third of the weekend to lead the charge for VisionTrack Ducati.

Christian Iddon – P2

“I think I’m going to lobby Stuart Higgs to see if we can get extra points for the most laps led in a race. It’s hard to take when you lead for that long and get overtaken on the final lap and although three second place finishes are obviously a great start, three wins would have been better. Jason had something more than us in certain parts of the circuit though and he had plenty of opportunity to weigh things up by sitting behind me for so long. I was half expecting him to come by, especially in the last race but I felt confident leading, and we can take away a lot of positives from the weekend.”

Christian Iddon
Christian Iddon

Bridewell meanwhile, had been desperate to make amends for his DNF in the previous race when the incident forced him to retire. He carved his way through from 12th position at the start and was soon piling the pressure on the riders ahead of him.

By lap 11, Bridewell was into fifth before he made a move on Hickman, who was beginning to suffer again from arm pump. He then targeted Mackenzie, hunting the McAMS Yamaha rider down before making a decisive pass on the brakes on lap 16.

Bridewell held off Mackenzie to the chequered flag to take the final podium position of the weekend with Hickman completing the top five.

Peter Hickman – P3

“Great weekend for myself and the FHO Racing BMW team, fantastic to get the first-ever podium for the team at round one and the first-ever podium for the M 1000 RR BMW. If we were offered a 4th 5th and podium from the weekend before we got there, we would have definitely taken it, especially when I was struggling with arm pump really badly this weekend, which is unusual for myself. I felt I had the pace to have been on the podium for all three races, if not to win one or two. That’s the way things go, but I will work to get that sorted before the next round. So leaving here on a positive, the bike has worked really well and shown its potential and it is only round one for us and look forward to getting to Knockhill. Finally, wishing my teammate Xavi all the best and look forward to getting him back with the team for Knockhill.”

Peter Hickman

It was a difficult weekend for defending champion Josh Brookes, the Australian ending today’s two races in seventh and sixth place respectively.

Josh Brookes – P6

“We’ve definitely made a step forward today especially in the last race although sixth place is a relatively small consolation. It’s important to always think about the positives though and irrespective of the position, I got a decent feeling with the bike again. I actually felt like I could be aggressive and attack into the corners and by doing that, the confidence slowly returned. I got further up the field and scored more points, but I’ve created a bit of a challenge for myself and need to put in some hard work ahead of the next round.”

Josh Brookes

Jason O’Halloran leads the Superbike standings as a result, on a perfect 75-points, with Iddon second overall on 60. Hickman is a distant third on 40-points, ahead of Mackenzie (34), Bridewell (32) and defending champ Josh Brookes on 25.

2021 British Superbike Championship – Oulton Park Results

Source: MCNews.com.au

O’Halloran takes first blood at Oulton Park | Brookes P10

2021 British Superbike Championship
Round One – Oulton Park

Images by David Yeoman


Australian Jason O’Halloran has kicked off the 2021 British Superbike Championship in the best way possible, winning the opening race of the year’s first round, taking the win at Oulton Park ahead of Christian Iddon and Tommy Bridewell.

Oulton Park saw riders out on track for the opening race of the season

Iddon had hit the front of the pack on the opening lap as he launched off the front row to lead into Old Hall for the first time ahead of O’Halloran and Tarran Mackenzie.

As Iddon led the pack, O’Halloran was looking to make his move, but it wasn’t until lap eight when he could make it ahead with a move down the inside at Old Hall.

The VisionTrack Ducati rider tried to reclaim the position, edging ahead as the crossed the line on the tenth lap, but O’Halloran had the lead into Old Hall.

Jason O’Halloran topped the podium in Race 1, ahead of Christian Iddon and Tommy Bridewell

The McAMS Yamaha rider held off the challenge until the chequered flag as Iddon claimed second place for VisionTrack Ducati, with Bridewell in third continuing his successful weekend so far for Oxford Products Racing Ducati.

Jason O’Halloran – P1

“It feels absolutely great to claim the first win of the year! We’ve had probably the best pre-season I’ve ever had, I’ve topped the majority of the test sessions – but the first sessions that actually counted were this weekend and we got one lap so I was a bit unhappy about qualifying. I put my head down though in the race and got a really good start. I’ve done about three practice starts this weekend and fluffed them all so I’m glad I got that one right when it mattered! I just settled in to the race, I sort of knew my pace as I had done a pretty long run in FP3 and I could see Christian ahead. I was pretty happy with what he was doing, he wasn’t really getting away although there was a little gap, it was more of a yo-yo gap and I just picked my time. Once I got to the front I started to push it a bit more. I knew he would come with me because when you’re following you can tag on and get pulled away, and I was happy to just run my normal lines and learn as much as I could for tomorrow. I think we can still improve tomorrow, it’s a longer race as well which I think will play into our favour.”

Jason O’Halloran

Christian Iddon – P2

“To come away from the first race of the season with a trophy is obviously great but it was a hard race and after eight months away from racing it was quite a shock to the system. I don’t think I’ve been riding as well as I can do this weekend so I didn’t want to lead and when Jason came by, he pulled quite a gap straight away, but our bikes are so completely different these gaps can come and go and that’s what happened. We’ve definitely improved, and we’ll look to see if we can make further improvements for tomorrow, but 20 points is a good start to the season.”

Christian Iddon

Peter Hickman was just adrift of the leading trio to lead the BMW contenders to score fourth place on the FHO Racing BMW team debut at Oulton Park.

Mackenzie finished in a lone fifth place ahead of Honda Racing’s Glenn Irwin and Rich Energy OMG Racing BMW’s Kyle Ryde after teammate Bradley Ray was forced to retire in the early stages of the race.

Lee Jackson scored FS-3 Kawasaki eighth place, maintaining his position ahead of Ryan Vickers and Josh Brookes as the reigning champion completed the top ten.

Josh Brookes – P10

“We’ve used testing to try a number of things with the bike and did so with optimism and we felt we had the package to come here and challenge for the win. For whatever reason though, that’s not happened and even though we eventually put in exactly the same settings as what we had last year, I haven’t been able to get anywhere near where I should be. We know what the issue is, we just need to work out how to solve it. Sometimes you can look at your own shortcomings which I can accept so we’ll sit down and have a good look at what we need to do to make a better fist of things in tomorrow’s races.”

Defending champion Josh Brookes finished 10th, with an issue proving hard to solve

It was a disappointing opening race for SYNETIQ BMW’s Andrew Irwin, who crashed out at Old Hall and Buildbase Suzuki’s Danny Kent, who slid off at Lodge.


2021 British Superbike Championship – Oulton Park Race 1 Results

Pos Rider Time Gap
1 JASON O’HALLORAN 22:15:857
2 CHRISTIAN IDDON 22:16:487 +0.630
3 TOMMY BRIDEWELL 22:17:265 +1.408
4 PETER HICKMAN 22:21:770 +5.913
5 TARRAN MACKENZIE 22:28:811 +12.954
6 GLENN IRWIN 22:31:746 +15.889
7 KYLE RYDE 22:32:012 +16.155
8 LEE JACKSON 22:32:435 +16.578
9 RYAN VICKERS 22:32:931 +17.074
10 JOSH BROOKES 22:33:775 +17.918
11 GINO REA 22:35:504 +19.647
12 DANNY BUCHAN 22:39:674 +23.817
13 RORY SKINNER 22:42:670 +26.813
14 DEAN HARRISON 22:52:457 +36.600
15 BJORN ESTMENT 22:55:756 +39.899
16 STORM STACEY 22:59:997 +44.140
17 LUKE HOPKINS 23:07:976 +52.119
18 DAN LINFOOT 23:15:995 +1:00.138
19 RYO MIZUNO 23:28:680 +1:12.823
20 BRIAN MCCORMACK 23:35:877 +1:20.020
21 JOEY THOMPSON 22:20:088 +1 Lap
DNF JOSH OWENS 16:45:827 +4 Laps
DNF TAKUMI TAKAHASHI 13:39:677 +6 Laps
DNF BRAD JONES 09:58:245 +8 Laps
DNF DANNY KENT 06:30:374 +10 Laps
DNF ANDREW IRWIN 04:55:821 +11 Laps
DNF JOE FRANCIS 03:20:672 +12 Laps
DNF BRADLEY RAY 03:30:419 +12 Laps

British Superbike Standings after Round 1 Race 1

Pos Rider Points
1 JASON O’HALLORAN 25
2 CHRISTIAN IDDON 20
3 TOMMY BRIDEWELL 16
4 PETER HICKMAN 13
5 TARRAN MACKENZIE 11
6 GLENN IRWIN 10
7 KYLE RYDE 9
8 LEE JACKSON 8
9 RYAN VICKERS 7
10 JOSH BROOKES 6
11 GINO REA 5
12 DANNY BUCHAN 4
13 RORY SKINNER 3
14 DEAN HARRISON 2
15 BJORN ESTMENT 1

Source: MCNews.com.au

Josh Brookes kicks off BSB title defence at Oulton Park this weekend

2021 British Superbike Championship


Double defending BSB champions VisionTrack Ducati will get their title defence underway at Oulton Park this weekend with Paul Bird’s team looking to make it a hat trick of back-to-back titles, with Josh Brookes carrying the #1 plate on his factory-supported VisionTrack Ducati Panigale V4 R.

Josh Brookes

Brookes added the 2020 crown to his 2015 BSB success and remains with the team for a third successive season where he’ll once again be joined by Christian Iddon. Iddon, originally from Stockport but now living on Tyneside finished third in last year’s 18-race title chase and in his debut season with the PBM team scored his first win at Snetterton.

Both riders have undertaken an extensive pre-season testing schedule in the run up to the opening round of the season and are confident they can get off to a good start. At Oulton Park last year, Brookes won a race and Iddon followed him home, as well as bagging a pair of other second places around the Cheshire venue.

Josh Brookes

“Oulton Park is going to be interesting and I’m excited to start the season there. It’s a unique track and I have some good form there and a history of good results over the years which is a positive for us. We tried a lot of things in testing but as we know, the bike is a proven winner, so it’s been difficult to make massive improvements to it. But we never stop working and there is always something to try and refine. As for me, I’m more of a race guy than a tester and it’s all about getting results from the races so hopefully we can make a good start to the season.”

Josh Brookes

This season comprises a total of 33 races over the 11 rounds between next weekend and mid-October meaning a very busy schedule for teams and riders with every round being a triple-header. Both Brookes and Iddon know the importance of making a good start to help boost their title aspirations.

Christian Iddon

“I’m really excited to get racing again although it’s very disappointing we won’t have a full Christian Iddoncontingent of spectators for this round, especially with it traditionally being my local track. But I’ll be doing my best to put on a good show for those at Oulton Park as well as those watching on television and listening on BSB Radio. I feel much more relaxed on the bike than I did last year so hopefully we can make that count and kick the season off well. A good haul of points is important at round one to give us a stable platform for the season ahead.”

Christian Iddon

Sadly, for the opening round, because of the delay in easing of government restrictions, only 4,000 fans will be allowed to attend each day but those missing out on attending can rely on live television and radio coverage until hopefully fans will be allowed back into circuits from round three at Brands Hatch in late July.

John Mowatt – Team Co-Ordinator

“As a team we are really looking forward to getting the season underway as it seems such a long time since we last rode competitively. Testing has gone well, and the idea was to try as many things as possible, so we know what works and what doesn’t so we achieved what we set out to do. We are now looking to get our season off to the strongest possible start at what is our local circuit and for the first time since 2019, in front of some spectators.”


2021 British Superbike Championship Calendar

Round Location Races
Official Test T1 – Silverstone National – 28 – 29 April
Official Test T2 – Snetterton 300 – 04 – 06 May
Official Test T3 – Oulton Park – 19 May
Official Test T4 – Donington Park (National) – 08 June
Round 1 Oulton Park – 25 – 27 June Triple Header
Round 2 Knockhill – 09 – 11 July Triple Header
Round 3 Brands Hatch Gp – 23 – 25 July Triple Header
Round 4 Thruxton – 30 – 01 August Triple Header
Round 5 Donington Park (National) – 13 – 15 August Triple Header
Round 6 Cadwell Park – 20 – 22 August Triple Header
Round 7 Snetterton 300 – 03 – 05 September Triple Header
Round 8 Silverstone National – 10 – 12 September Triple Header
Round 9 Oulton Park – 24 – 26 September Triple Header
Round 10 Donington Park Gp – 01 – 03 October Triple Header
Round 11 Brands Hatch Gp – 15 – 17 October Triple Header

Source: MCNews.com.au

Aussies top opening day of Silverstone BSB test

2021 British Superbike Championship
Silverstone Test

Images by David Yeomans Photography


Australia’s Jason O’Halloran has set the initial benchmark as the Bennetts British Superbike Championship testing at Silverstone kicked off on Wednesday as the McAMS Yamaha rider topped all four sessions, edging out title rival and reigning champion Josh Brookes by 0.358s on the combined times.

Jason O’Halloran tops Day 1 of the BSB Silverstone test

The Australian’s best time came in the second session of the day before lunch, with the McAMS Yamaha contender continuing to build momentum in the team’s first test of the season.

Jason O’Halloran – McAMS Yamaha

“To be honest it was great to get back out on the bike. The first session was a little bit patchy, so we just did some laps to get the feeling back. The second session was really good for us. It was pretty much an identical bike to the one I rode here last year. In the lunchbreak, the boys changed the engine and we tried the 2021 spec, which we tried this afternoon for the last two sessions. Although we ended up at the top, this slowed us down a bit – when you put a new spec in you have to work through things like fuelling and throttle cables, so we’ve just been doing laps this afternoon to get things to my liking.Compared with how I felt on the previous bike, the changes we’ve made have been really positive and I feel comfortable, we’ve just got to tweak it to make it my own again. We’ll do that tomorrow and also some chassis stuff, so we can look forward to that tomorrow.”

Jason O’Halloran

Brookes meanwhile was consistently close and the defending champion set his best lap of the day in the third session, which put him 0.074s clear of his teammate Christian Iddon as the VisionTrack Ducati pairing locked out the final top three positions.

Josh Brookes

Kyle Ryde was the leading BMW rider onboard the all-new M 1000 RR, the Rich Energy OMG Racing BMW rider was fourth fastest on the combined timings, setting the second fastest time in the final session of the day as he pushed for a final run before the chequered flag.

Kyle Ryde

Xavi Forés marked his return to Bennetts BSB action with the all-new FHO Racing BMW team by holding fourth place in the final session of the day, putting him in fifth place on the combined times as the Spaniard saved his best until last ahead of day two tomorrow.

Xavi Forés

The overall combined times featured five different manufacturers in the top seven and Buildbase Suzuki’s Danny Kent bounced back from an earlier crash to lead their charge in sixth place with Honda Racing’s Glenn Irwin in seventh place overall.

Tommy Bridewell and Oxford Products Racing Ducati set their best time in the final session of the day, putting him into eighth place and just ahead of Gino Rea on the second of the Buildbase Suzukis with Tarran Mackenzie in tenth place, ending the day early following a crash in the final session.


BSB Official Test, Silverstone – Day 1 Combined

Pos Rider Team Time
1 Jason O’Halloran McAMS Yamaha 53.469s
2 Josh Brookes VisionTrack Ducati +0.358s
3 Christian Iddon VisionTrack Ducati +0.432s
4 Kyle Ryde RICH Energy OMG Racing BMW +0.437s
5 Xavi Forés FHO Racing BMW +0.453s
6 Danny Kent Buildbase Suzuki +0.560s
7 Glenn Irwin Honda Racing +0.562s
8 Tommy Bridewell Oxford Products Racing Ducati +0.650s
9 Gino Rea Buildbase Suzuki +0.679s
10 Tarran Mackenzie McAMS Yamaha +0.694s

2021 British Superbike Championship Calendar

Round Location Races
Official Test T1 – Silverstone National – 28 – 29 April
Official Test T2 – Snetterton 300 – 04 – 06 May
Official Test T3 – Oulton Park – 19 May
Official Test T4 – Donington Park (National) – 08 June
Round 1 Oulton Park – 25 – 27 June Triple Header
Round 2 Knockhill – 09 – 11 July Triple Header
Round 3 Brands Hatch Gp – 23 – 25 July Triple Header
Round 4 Thruxton – 30 – 01 August Triple Header
Round 5 Donington Park (National) – 13 – 15 August Triple Header
Round 6 Cadwell Park – 20 – 22 August Triple Header
Round 7 Snetterton 300 – 03 – 05 September Triple Header
Round 8 Silverstone National – 10 – 12 September Triple Header
Round 9 Oulton Park – 24 – 26 September Triple Header
Round 10 Donington Park Gp – 01 – 03 October Triple Header
Round 11 Brands Hatch Gp – 15 – 17 October Triple Header

Source: MCNews.com.au

Sunday double secures British Superbike Championship for Brookes

2020 British Superbike Championship Finale Sunday wrap

Josh Brookes has celebrated becoming the Bennetts British Superbike Championship for a second time, following a sensational title-deciding triple-header on the Brands Hatch Grand Prix circuit.

Brookes was last crowned champion in 2015, and his performance this weekend in the final three rounds gave him a final 21-point advantage over closest rival Jason O’Halloran to seal the crown.

The title victory for VisionTrack Ducati means that the PBM team successfully defended their title, to score an incredible eighth Bennetts BSB Championship victory.

2020 British Superbike Championship finale

The championship momentum swung back in favour of the VisionTrack Ducati team following the penultimate event at Donington Park, and Brookes came into the final round with a 16-point advantage over teammate Christian Iddon.

The season started with a podium at the opening round at Donington Park, before disaster struck following a collision with Andrew Irwin, which left a zero point score finish to the opening weekend.

However Brookes rebounded at Snetterton to claim victory in the opening race, which he followed up with a podium finish, before another podium following a testing weekend at Silverstone.

Oulton Park was another tough start to the racing action, but claiming the victory in the final race in Cheshire, put Brookes back on the winning course and confident ahead of the return to Donington Park.

Two third places and a victory, as championship leader Glenn Irwin crashed out of the opening race, gave the Australian the edge coming into the title-decider.

Brookes had his lead reduced in the standings in the opening race to seven-points, but then on the final day of the season he claimed a commanding Round 17 victory before sealing the final win of 2020 to lift the title.

Jason O’Halloran had done everything he could to try and bag his first title; winning the dramatic opening race on Saturday and with teammate Tarran Mackenzie, they pushed the Australian all the way to the finish in the last race of the year.

O’Halloran’s third place in Round 18 gave him second in the standings, with Christian Iddon completing the 2020 top three for VisionTrack Ducati as the pair celebrated their strongest career result.

Josh Brookes

It feels awesome to win the title and a lot of my talking was done out on the track today. When I’m under pressure, I seem to be able to find that little bit more and get the results when I need to, which is exactly what I’ve done today. I had to ride aggressively in both races and although I only needed to finish third in the final race to clinch the championship, I didn’t want to win the title with a third, I wanted to win. It’s been a hard fought year and I was pushed hard all weekend but the bike worked really well and it felt natural to go out there and win so a big thank you to everyone at the PBM team.”

Josh Brookes – 2020 British Superbike Champion
Christian Iddon

When I left the pre-season test at Donington Park in 18th place, I would have settled Christian Iddonfor third in the championship but in reality, I’m disappointed. To take it to the final race of the season was always the plan and congratulations to both Jason and of course, my teammate Josh for winning the title. I can’t thank Paul Bird and the whole VisionTrack team enough, they have been superb and to end up first and third in the championship is a fantastic effort. And I guess I should be happy with being the best non-Australian in the standings!”

Paul Bird – VisionTrack Ducati Team Owner

That went to plan and congratulations to Josh who rode impeccably under such pressure. He never buckled at all and he deserves the championship, I’m just glad he got out of bed the right side today! I’d like to thank Stuart Higgs and his team for their hard work in getting the championship on although it’s been strange and sad without the fans. Well done to Christian too, he’s been a pleasure to work with this season and third in the final standings is a great achievement on his first year in the team. That’s eight titles and 123 race wins now so thanks to our sponsors, my friends and my family and a special mention for my dad, without whose help none of this would be possible so this one’s for him.”

Josh Brookes – 2020 British Superbike Champion
Andrew Irwin

“2020 when I look at it we had a lot of potential, we had a new bike, we won three races and it’s been a strong year. I finished sixth in the championship, we lost a few points here and there, so to finish sixth and only 54 points from Glenn it wasn’t such a bad year. This weekend I think we made big steps forward throughout and in the first race we made the most of what we could. The next two races were quite positive and to finish Round 17 fourth was good, we were almost the best of the rest as such. The final race was really strong, and I feel probably one of my best races this season, we made a massive step forward with the race time. I want to thank all the Honda Racing team for their hard work this season and believing in me when things got tough.”

Glenn Irwin

“Coming into this season off the back of last year it was about re-building and reminding myself of what I can do, and also the project of the all-new Fireblade, so there were lots of goals to come better again and do a better job than we did in 2018. I had to establish myself again and I think we did that, doing it on an all-new bike was never going to be easy but it’s testament to the team for giving us the package we had as we didn’t expect to be so strong so soon. We had very few difficult periods, but the ones we had we will look at as a team to improve the bike, but as I say there were a lot less of them compared to the good moments. I have really enjoyed working with the team, getting my mojo back, enjoyed winning a race again and fighting for podiums and to come racing again. For me that was a big thing, to come and enjoy my racing and be happy, and be happy away from racing. Personally it’s been a great season regardless of what the outcome was with the championship, it’s been a huge success. Thanks to all at Honda Racing, I feel we’re back!”
Glenn Irwin

Honda Team Manager Havier Beltran

“2020 started so strong for us and straight away the results were above our expectations if I’m honest. What that did, yes it gives you the motivation and drive but it also puts your expectations a lot further in front than we were able to reach with the development of the new Fireblade. I said to the guys if we’re to win this championship we have to be winning races and that’s where it let us down. But putting all that to one side all the highs and lows throughout Superbike and Superstock, we’ve had a great season we’ve learnt a lot and know a lot of areas where we can be a lot stronger for 2021. We’ve had the new Fireblade to develop and we should be proud of the success we’ve had with it to date, I’d like to thank all the team, Andrew, Glenn, Tom and Davey for all their hard work this year.”

Race Two Results

Pos Rider Bike Time/Gap
1 Josh BROOKES Ducati 28m39.070
2 Jason O’HALLORAN Yamaha +1.085
3 Christian IDDON Ducati +10.880
4 Andrew IRWIN Honda +16.097
5 Lee JACKSON Kawasaki +16.246
6 Luke MOSSEY BMW +16.523
7 Danny BUCHAN Kawasaki +16.590
8 Peter HICKMAN BMW +17.889
9 Gino REA Suzuki +17.964
10 Tommy BRIDEWELL Ducati +19.935
11 Kyle RYDE Suzuki +24.559
12 Glenn IRWIN Honda +24.769
13 Jack KENNEDY Kawasaki +35.463
14 Taylor MACKENZIE BMW +46.244
15 Josh OWENS Kawasaki +56.940
16 Storm STACEY Kawasaki +57.039
17 Bjorn ESTMENT Suzuki +1m21.230
Not Classifeds
DNF Joe FRANCIS BMW 12 Laps
DNF Tarran MACKENZIE Yamaha 13 Laps
DNF Héctor BARBERÁ BMW 15 Laps
DNF Graeme IRWIN Kawasaki 16 Laps
DNF Bradley RAY BMW 18 Laps
DNF Brian McCORMACK BMW /
DNF Lachlan EPIS BMW /

Race Three Results

Pos Rider Bike Time/Gap
1 Josh BROOKES Ducati 28m35.963
2 Tarran MACKENZIE Yamaha +0.578
3 Jason O’HALLORAN Yamaha +1.339
4 Christian IDDON Ducati +8.816
5 Andrew IRWIN Honda +8.882
6 Danny BUCHAN Kawasaki +9.042
7 Tommy BRIDEWELL Ducati +17.660
8 Peter HICKMAN BMW +17.827
9 Lee JACKSON Kawasaki +17.891
10 Gino REA Suzuki +18.028
11 Glenn IRWIN Honda +21.320
12 Luke MOSSEY BMW +26.027
13 Joe FRANCIS BMW +26.168
14 Bradley RAY BMW +27.224
15 Héctor BARBERÁ BMW +42.349
16 Taylor MACKENZIE BMW +49.018
17 Storm STACEY Kawasaki +53.163
18 Josh OWENS Kawasaki +53.603
19 Bjorn ESTMENT Suzuki +1m16.695
Not Classified
DNF Jack KENNEDY Kawasaki 10 Laps
DNF Kyle RYDE Suzuki 10 Laps
DNF Brian McCORMACK BMW 15 Laps
DNF Graeme IRWIN Kawasaki 18 Laps

British Superbike Championship Standings

Pos Rider Points
1 Josh BROOKES (Ducati) 288
2 Jason O’HALLORAN (Yamaha) 267
3 Christian IDDON (Ducati) 258
4 Glenn IRWIN (Honda) 226
5 Tarran MACKENZIE (Yamaha) 215
6 Andrew IRWIN (Honda) 172
7 Tommy BRIDEWELL (Ducati) 168
8 Lee JACKSON (Kawasaki) 157
9 Kyle RYDE (Suzuki) 137
10 Danny BUCHAN (Kawasaki) 131
11 Luke MOSSEY (BMW) 95
12 Gino REA (Suzuki) 89
13 Bradley RAY (BMW) 76
14 Peter HICKMAN (BMW) 71
15 Ryan VICKERS (Kawasaki) 45
16 Jack KENNEDY (Kawasaki) 34
17 Héctor BARBERÁ (BMW) 32
18 Joe FRANCIS (BMW) 24
19 Keith FARMER (Suzuki) 10
20 Alex OLSEN (BMW) 8
21 Taylor MACKENZIE (BMW) 7
22 Storm STACEY (Kawasaki) 4
23 Markus REITERBERGER (BMW) 2
24 Dan LINFOOT (Yamaha) 2
24 Josh OWENS (Kawasaki) 1
25 Graeme IRWIN (Kawasaki) 1

British Supersport Championship & British GP2 Cup

Rory Skinner concluded his dominant Quattro Group British Supersport Championship season with another dominant win. Harry Truelove launched off pole position to take the holeshot ahead of Brad Jones and Ben Currie. As they started the second lap, series leader Skinner sliced his way into third as the leading four riders were covered by less than half a second.

A mistake at Druids by Truelove saw the two Tyser Yamaha riders find their way through before a big crash from Truelove just two corners later saw him tumble out of contention. Wasting no time, Skinner was into the lead and soon setting a string of fast laps to edge away from Jones.

As the race reached the halfway stage, Bradley Perie was holding third ahead of Ben Currie, Lee Johnston and Korie McGreevy. Maintaining positions until the final lap, Skinner eventually took the win by 4.003s. Perie eventually secured seconds whilst Jones was third ahead of Australian Ben Currie.

Tom Toparis was the tenth Supersport machine home to round out a highly creditable, but injury interrupted, last minute entry in the BSB Supersport ranks.

Mason Law took the GP2 class victory to secure the 2020 title for the Moto2 machines.

Race Two Results

Pos Rider Bike Time/Gap
1 Rory SKINNER Yamaha 23m38.191
2 Bradley PERIE Yamaha +4.003
3 Brad JONES Yamaha +4.073
4 Ben CURRIE Kawasak +4.113
5 Korie McGREEVY Yamaha +9.746
6 Lee JOHNSTON Yamaha +9.835
7 Mason LAW GP2 Spirit +19.608
8 James WESTMORELAND Kawasaki +21.593
9 Alastair SEELEY GP2 ABM Quattro +21.846
10 Richard KERR Triumph +21.962
11 Charlie NESBITT GP2 ABM Quattro +22.059
12 Tom OLIVER GP2 Chassis Factory +22.778
13 Luke HEDGER Triumph +30.735
14 Cameron HORSMAN GP2 Chassis Factory +33.124
15 Jake ARCHER GP2 Kalex +33.279
16 Tom TOPARIS Yamaha +33.394
17 Kurt WIGLEY Yamaha +35.626
18 Dan JONES GP2 FTR +39.557
19 Gary JOHNSON Triumph +49.078
20 Phil WAKEFIELD Yamaha +51.748
21 Tomás DE VRIES GP2 Chassis Factory +51.801
22 Cameron FRASER GP2 Chassis Factory +1m01.476
23 Mark CONLIN Yamaha +1m31.743
24 David KRAWIEKCI Yamaha +1 Lap
25 Cedric BLOCH Kawasaki +1 Lap
Not Classifieds
DNF Jorel BOERBOOM Honda 3 Laps
DNF Jack SCOTT GP2 Harris 8 Laps
DNF Rob HARTOG MV Agusta 12 Laps
DNF Harry TRUELOVE Yamaha 13 Laps

Championship Standings

Pos Rider Points
1 Rory SKINNER (Yamaha) 270
2 Brad JONES (Yamaha) 174
3 James WESTMORELAND (Kawasaki) 152
4 Bradley PERIE (Yamaha) 147
5 Lee JOHNSTON (Yamaha) 118
6 Harry TRUELOVE (Yamaha) 103
7 Richard KERR (Triumph) 98
8 Ben CURRIE (Kawasaki) 91
9 Rob HARTOG (MV Agusta) 76
10 Kurt WIGLEY (Yamaha) 61
11 Korie McGREEVY (Yamaha) 54
12 Jamie PERRIN (Yamaha) 43
13 James ROSE (Kawasaki) 41
14 Ross PATTERSON (Yamaha) 41
15 Phil WAKEFIELD (Yamaha) 41
16 Tom TOPARIS (Yamaha) 30
17 Alan NAYLOR (Yamaha) 18
18 Scott SWANN (Yamaha) 12
19 Ricky TARREN (Yamaha) 11
20 Gary JOHNSON (Triumph) 8
21 Luke HEDGER (Triumph) 7
22 Keenan ARMSTRONG (Kawasaki) 6
23 Mike NORBURY (Kawasaki) 6
24 Ben WOTTON (Triumph) 6
25 Mark CONLIN (Yamaha) 5
26 Grant McINTOSH (Yamaha) 5
27 Michael DUNLOP (Yamaha) 3
28 David KRAWIEKCI (Yamaha) 3
29 Cedric BLOCH (Kawasaki) 1

British Superstock 1000

Danny Kent took a thrilling victory in the final Pirelli National Superstock 1000 race of the year as Chrissy Rouse was crowned Champion. It was an action-packed race, but disaster struck Championship contender Tom Neave who crashed out on the opening lap.

This left a five river battle for the win but as the race progressed it came down to a three-way scrap between Kent, Dan Linfoot and Chrissy Rouse. Despite a last lap challenge from Linfoot, Kent was able to hang on to the win whilst Rouse completed the podium in third to secure the 2020 crown.

Lewis Rollo was fourth ahead of Billy McConnell, the South Australian coming home fifth while countryman Brayden Elliott rounded out his season with a 13th place finish.

Race Results

Pos Rider Bike Time/Gap
1 Danny KENT Kawasaki 20m8.083
2 Dan LINFOOT BMW +0.044
3 Chrissy ROUSE BMW +0.566
4 Lewis ROLLO Aprilia +1.591
5 Billy McCONNELL BMW  +1.614
6 Tim NEAVE Suzuki  +6.663
7 Keith FARMER Suzuki +10.264
8 Luke HEDGER Kawasaki +13.282
9 Jordan WEAVING Suzuki +17.073
10 Ian HUTCHINSON BMW 20.017
11 Shane RICHARDSON BMW +21.019
12 Davey TODD Honda +21.167
13 Brayden ELLIOTT Suzuki +22.083
14 Joe SHELDON-SHAW Suzuki +22.557
15 Shaun WINFIELD Honda +32.613
16 Michael RUTTER BMW +33.179
17 Craig NEVE BMW +35.461
18 Lee WILLIAMS Kawasaki +36.166
19 Tom TUNSTALL Suzuki +43.424
20 Luke HOPKINS Kawasaki +48.916
21 Dani SAEZ GUTERREZ Kawasaki +51.227
22 Conor CUMMINS Honda +51.569
23 Ashley BEECH Suzuki +51.755
24 Josh WOOD Kawasaki +52.107
25 Dave MACKAY Suzuki +1m21.107
26 Robert HODSON Kawasaki +1m21.488
27 Ricky ELDER BMW +1m22.423
28 Ben BROADWAY Aprilia +1 Lap
Not Classifieds
DNF Rob McNEALY BMW 3 Laps
DNF David BROOK BMW 3 Laps
DNF Fraser ROGERS Kawasaki 11 Laps
DNF Tom WARD Kawasaki 11 Laps
DNF Luke JONES Aprilia 11 Laps
DNF Tom NEAVE Honda /

Championship Standings

Pos Rider Points
1 Chrissy ROUSE (BMW) 181
2 Tom NEAVE (Honda) 155
3 Lewis ROLLO (Aprilia) 130
4 Billy McCONNELL (BMW) 121
5 Tim NEAVE (Suzuki) 118
6 Danny KENT (Kawasaki) 113
7 Fraser ROGERS (Kawasaki) 82
8 Damon REES (BMW) 71
9 Luke HEDGER (Kawasaki) 59
10 Dan LINFOOT (BMW) 53
11 Jordan WEAVING (Suzuki) 47
12 Davey TODD (Honda) 46
13 Ian HUTCHINSON (BMW) 43
14 Brayden ELLIOTT (Suzuki) 35
15 Matt TRUELOVE (BMW) 28
16 Shane RICHARDSON (BMW) 25
17 Joe COLLIER (Suzuki) 23
18 David ALLINGHAM (Suzuki) 15
19 Luke JONES (Aprilia) 10
20 Keith FARMER (Suzuki) 9
21 Richard COOPER (BMW) 9
22 Leon JEACOCK (Suzuki) 8
23 Joe SHELDON-SHAW (Suzuki) 8
24 Shaun WINFIELD (Yamaha) 7
25 Johnny BLACKSHAW (Aprilia) 2
26 Luke HOPKINS (Kawasaki) 2


British Superstock 600

Rhys Irwin has taken the final Pirelli National Superstock 600 victory of 2020 in a hard fought battle at Brands Hatch, with brother Caolan Irwin second and TJ Toms third.

Champion of 2020 Ben Luxton grabbed the advantage from the opening lap, leading the pack with Caolan Irwin and TJ Toms second and third. By half race distance the battle at the front became a seven-man strong dice, with Caolan Irwin heading the pack.

But in a battle of attrition over the final four laps, the top four continued to swap places until the flag, with Rhys Irwin taking the victory from brother Caolan and TJ Toms, with Liam Delves fourth.

Race Two Results

Pos Rider Bike Time/Gap
1 Rhys IRWIN Yamaha 18m24.133
2 Caolan IRWIN Kawasaki +0.360
3 TJ TOMS Yamaha +0.389
4 Liam DELVES Yamaha +0.537
5 Ben LUXTON Kawasaki +1.295
6 George STANLEY Kawasaki +1.958
7 Jack NIXON Kawasaki +2.534
8 Joe TALBOT Kawasaki +2.598
9 Simon REID Yamaha +3.842
10 Louis VALLELEY Kawasaki +10.345
11 Eugene McMANUS Kawasaki +11.229
12 James ALDERSON Triumph +11.426
13 Zak CORDEROY Kawasaki +13.024
14 Adam HARTGROVE Yamaha +21.846
15 Asher DURHAM Kawasaki +21.951
16 William LATHROPE Triumph +21.976
17 Aaron SILVESTER Yamaha +26.793
18 Daniel BROOKS Kawasaki +28.377
19 Owen JENNER Kawasaki +31.615
20 Trystan FINOCCHIARO Kawasaki +32.099
21 Nathan DRURY Kawasaki +32.184
22 Matthew BOWER Kawasaki +32.251
23 Conor WHEELER Yamaha +32.327
24 Josh COWARD Kawasaki +47.154
25 Toby REYNOLDS Yamaha +47.308
26 Harry FOWLE Triumph +52.767
27 Bradley RICHMAN Kawasaki +1m02.905
28 Kayla BARRINGTON Kawasaki +1m03.059
29 Jamie LE MASURIER Triumph +1m10.139
Not Classifieds
DNF James BULL MV Agusta 11 Laps
DNF Michael LARGE-TAYLOR Yamaha 11 Laps

Championship Points

Pos Rider Points
1 Ben LUXTON (Kawasaki) 165
2 Rhys IRWIN (Yamaha) 121
3 Zak CORDEROY (Kawasaki) 108
4 Caolan IRWIN (Kawasaki) 99
5 Liam DELVES (Yamaha) 75
6 Jack NIXON (Kawasaki) 69
7 Joe TALBOT (Kawasaki) 63
8 James ALDERSON (Triumph) 57
9 Simon REID (Yamaha) 51
10 TJ TOMS (Kawasaki) 46
11 Daniel BROOKS (Kawasaki) 46
12 George STANLEY (Kawasaki) 44
13 Eugene McMANUS (Kawasaki) 30
14 Adam McLEAN (Yamaha) 27
15 Kade VERWEY (Kawasaki) 20
16 Sam LAFFINS (Kawasaki) 18
17 Louis VALLELEY (Kawasaki) 13
18 Aaron SILVESTER (Yamaha) 12
19 Asher DURHAM (Kawasaki) 12
20 Adam HARTGROVE (Yamaha) 9
21 Connor THOMSON (Yamaha) 8
22 Conor WHEELER (Yamaha) 7
23 Luke VERWEY (Kawasaki) 6
24 Trystan FINOCCHIARO (Kawasaki) 4
25 Taylor MORETON (Kawasaki) 4
26 William LATHROPE (Triumph) 3
27 Christopher SINANAN (Kawasaki) 2
28 Matthew BOWER (Kawasaki) 1

Ducati Performance TriOptions Cup

South Australian Levi Day took his fifth win of the season at Brands Hatch in the final Ducati Tri-Options race of the season with Elliot Pinson second and Craig Neve third, as Josh Day took the title with a fifth place finish.

It was David Shoubridge who grabbed the holeshot after making a great start from the second row, but after the opening lap Levi Day led the way ahead of Pinson with Shoubridge in close proximity, with Josh Day down in seventh.

By half race distance Pinson took over at front as he looked to take his first victory of the season, but he then became embroiled in a battle with Levi Day, with Shoubridge just behind. However on the final lap Levi Day made his way past Pinson at the front to take his fifth win of the season, with Josh Day crossing the line fifth to take his second Championship in a second.

Race Two Results

Pos Rider Bike Time/Gap
1 Levi DAY BPS Racing 15m14.545
2 Elliott PINSON Symcirrus Motorsport +0.308
3 Craig NEVE CN Racing +3.769
4 David SHOUBRIDGE AH Performance +3.860
5 Josh DAY  Host-it.co.uk Racing Team +13.629
6 Samuel COX Sam Cox Racing +14.841
7 Dijon COMPTON Ducati +17.034
8 Carl STEVENS Freeman Harris Racing Ducati +19.161
9 David JONES Dragon Racing +19.382
10 Seb BULPIN SBR +20.583
11 Michael TUSTIN Jones Dorling Racing +20.697
12 Edmund BEST Symcirrus Motorsport +22.271
13 John McGUINNESS Lund Group +32.230
14 Ewan POTTER AH Performance +43.124
15 Matthew JONES Dragon Racing +43.214
16 Lee McLAUGHLIN J.A.B Racing +43.234
17 Craig KENNELLY Resideo Racing +43.396
18 Richard SPENCER-FLEET RSF Racing/Army  Road Race T +43.491
19 Matt STEVENS Tech 5 Racing +43.929
20 John REYNOLDS Fins Motorcycles +59.140
21 Hiro ARAZEKI JWF Motorsport +59.662
22 Peter HASLER Art of Racing +1m00.078
23 Mike LONG True Heroes Racing +1m02.518
24 Andre COMPTON Lund Group +1m02.725
25 Tom STEVENS Tech 5 Racing +1m02.984
26 Lee DEVONPORT Art of Racing +1m06.766
27 Ian FLEETWOOD Quarry Plant Ltd +1m16.414
28 Stephen TAYLOR  Bike Iconics +1m17.604
29 Jimmy BUCHANAN Architectural Coatings Ducati +1m36.375
30 Murray HAMBRO Legless Racing +1 Lap
31 Matthew FLOWER My Ductwork Ltd +1 Lap
Not Classified
DNF Ben FALLA Ducati – True Heroes Racing 6 Laps
DNF Andy BOOTH Ducati – ARBRacing.com 8 Laps

Championship Standings

Pos Rider Points
1 Josh DAY 216
2 Levi DAY 209
3 David SHOUBRIDGE 119
4 Elliott PINSON 117
5 Craig NEVE 108
6 Samuel COX 77
7 John McGUINNESS 74
8 Michael TUSTIN 70
9 Edmund BEST 68
10 Dijon COMPTON 66
11 Carl STEVENS 60
12 David JONES 35
13 Mark CHEETHAM 28
14 Matthew JONES 23
15 Alberto SOLERA 19
16 Ewan POTTER 16
17 Richard SPENCER-FLEET 15
18 Seb BULPIN 14
19 Ben FALLA 14
20 Hiro ARAZEKI 14
21 Sam MIDDLEMAS 13
22 Lee DEVONPORT 9
23 Matt STEVENS 8
24 Craig KENNELLY 5
25 Lee McLAUGHLIN 2
26 Peter HASLER 1

Source: MCNews.com.au

Brookes leaves Donington triple-header with BSB lead

2020 British Superbike Championship Round Five
Donington Park Sunday wrap

Images Dave Yeomans


Andrew Irwin opened the weekend’s racing with a victory for Honda Racing, winning the opening British Superbike race at the Donington triple-header, ahead of Ducati mounted rider’s Christian Iddon and Josh Brookes.

Race 2 saw Josh Brookes return to the top step of the podium, working his way to the front by lap five and then edging out his rivals and laying claim the championship lead. Jason O’Halloran took second meanwhile, while Tarran Mackenzie was third.

Josh Brookes took the Race 2 win, as well as the championship lead at Donington
Josh Brookes took the Race 2 win, as well as the championship lead at Donington

Tarran Mackenzie became the third different rider to top the Bennetts British Superbike Championship podium at Donington Park, grabbing the lead with four laps to go to give McAMS Yamaha the final victory of the weekend in Race 3. Glenn Irwin was second overall, with Josh Brookes making his third appearance on the podium for the triple-header.

Josh Brookes now sits on 225-points, 16-points clear of Christian Iddon on 209, with Glenn Irwin third on 207. Jason O’Halloran is only a point adrift in fourth on 206.

In the British Supersport James Westmoreland took his first victory of 2020 in a rain effected encounter at Donington Park, with James Rose and Bradley Perie rounding out the podium, and Cameron Horsman taking the GP2 victory.  Ben Currie crashed out early, in what he described as a “Really strange crash”, with 11 of the 27 riders not finishing.

Ben Currie
Ben Currie

Rory Skinner took the 2020 British Supersport Championship title with victory in the Feature race at Donington Park, winning from Brad Jones and Lee Johnston in the second Supersport race of the weekend, while Ben Currie came home in seventh.

Rory Skinner holds the Supersport standings lead on 220-points, to second place James Westmoreland on 143. Third overall is Brad Jones on 142-points. Australian Ben Currie current sits eighth on 58-points.

Aussie Billy McConnell took a last lap victory in Pirelli National Superstock 1000 Race 1, beating long-time race leader Lewis Rollo, with Tom Neave the final podium sitter. Tom Neave hit back in Race 2, closing the gap in the Championship standings with a dominant win in the second Pirelli National Superstock 1000 race of the weekend.

Billy McConnell
Billy McConnell

Chrissy Rouse currently holds the standings lead on 165-points, to Tom Neave on 155, with Rollo third on 117. Billy McConnel is fourth on 110, while New Zealand’s Damon Reese is eighth overall. Brayden Elliott sits 14th, with Shane Richardson 17th.

Rhys Irwin took the Pirelli National Superstock 600 victory at a damp but drying Donington Park, after an impressive final lap saw him fend off challenges from Jack Nixon and Championship leader Ben Luxton. Luxton now leads the standings by 33-points from Irwin and Zak Corderoy who are tied on 96-points.

The opening Junior Supersport race saw Taz Taylor make a victorious return to racing action, taking victory by four seconds from Adon Davie and Lewis Jones, with Owen Jenner taking the 2020 crown.

Brody Crockford took the final Hel Performance British Junior Supersport win of the season in a dominant display, winning by over five-seconds from Jenner, with Lynden Leatherland third. Owen Jenner holds the title on 176-points, while Seth Crump is second overall on 131, with Brody Crockford third on 116.


British Superbike Race One

On the opening lap Glenn Irwin led the pack, however there was a disaster for the championship leader when he crashed out at Goddards unhurt on the opening lap, and losing the lead in the standings for the first time this season.

Glenn Irwin
Glenn Irwin

At the front though Andrew Irwin was still flying the flag for Honda Racing, riding a perfect race to claim his third win of the season with the VisionTrack Ducati pairing behind him. Josh Brookes wasn’t able to get the better of his teammate for second place in the closing stages and Christian Iddon now leads the standings by two points ahead of Round 14.

Glenn Irwin is now equal on points in third place in the standings with Jason O’Halloran as the McAMS Yamaha rider also endured a tough opening race to the weekend, finishing in 14th place, just ahead of Tommy Bridewell.

Jason O'Halloran
Jason O’Halloran

At the front Tarran Mackenzie had been moving up the order on the leading McAMS Yamaha, edging out Ryan Vickers in the closing stages to finish fourth.

The RAF Regular & Reserve Kawasaki team though celebrated Vickers’ best result of the season and on the opposite side of the garage, Jack Kennedy was one of three riders to opt for an intermediate rear tyre, which saw him move up to seventh in the closing stages and he will start on pole position for Round 14.

Andrew Irwin topped the podium from Iddon and Brookes
Andrew Irwin topped the podium from Iddon and Brookes

Vickers was able to maintain fifth ahead of Gino Rea, who claimed his best finish for Buildbase Suzuki after also opting for the intermediate rear tyre option as conditions improved in the closing stages with teammate Kyle Ryde holding eighth place.

Danny Buchan and Lee Jackson completed the top ten for the Rapid Fulfillment FS-3 Kawasaki team .

Race One Results

Pos Rider Bike Time/Gap
1 Andrew IRWIN Honda  24m58.1
2 Christian IDDON Ducati +1.824
3 Josh BROOKES Ducati +2.508
4 Tarran MACKENZIE Yamah +8.048
5 Ryan VICKERS Kawasak +10.776
6 Gino REA Suzuki +12.297
7 Jack KENNEDY Kawasaki +12.387
8 Kyle RYDE Suzuki +13.841
9 Danny BUCHAN Kawasaki +17.938
10 Lee JACKSON Kawasaki +25.058
11 Luke MOSSEY BMW +25.608
12 Peter HICKMAN BMW +27.339
13 Keith FARMER Suzuki +27.801
14 Jason O’HALLORAN Yamaha +28.222
15 Tommy BRIDEWELL Ducati +38.199
16 Graeme IRWIN Kawasaki +41.714
17 Joe FRANCIS BMW +47.764
18 Ian HUTCHINSON BMW +49.254
19 Storm STACEY Kawasaki +50.336
20 Taylor MACKENZIE BMW +50.393
21 Markus REITERBERGER BMW +1M10.101
22 Héctor BARBERÁ BMW +1m10.612
23 Bjorn ESTMENT BMW +1m39.330
Not Classifieds
DNF Brian McCORMACK BMW  10 Laps
DNF Glenn IRWIN Honda  /

British Superbike Race Two

A hectic opening lap was lead by Kyle Ryde on the Buildbase Suzuki ahead of Tarran Mackenzie, Gino Rea, and pole-sitter Jack Kennedy, but the Silverstone race winner was later forced out of the action with a technical problem.

Tarran Mackenzie
Tarran Mackenzie

However the race action was ended prematurely for Ryan Vickers and Andrew Irwin, who crashed out together at the Melbourne Loop for the first time, with Peter Hickman and Danny Buchan also falling on the exit to curtail their bid for results.

At the front, Kennedy had then grabbed the advantage on the RAF Regular and Reserve Kawasaki, but Rea was attacking and he moved into the lead at Redgate at the start of lap three.

Brookes was calmly working his way up from sixth, were he was at the start of the race, taking the lead with a decisive move on lap five to push Rea into second place and then the VisionTrack Ducati rider put in a consistent run of laps to break the pack.

Jason O’Halloran was on the move, and the McAMS Yamaha rider was able to move ahead of Glenn Irwin and then Rea by the ninth lap, and despite his best efforts to reel Brookes back in, he crossed the line second and 0.578s adrift. The podium finish moves him back up to second in the standings now ahead of today’s final race.

Jason O'Halloran
Jason O’Halloran

Glenn Irwin was having a tough final part of his race and he was dropping back down the order, but ahead of him Mackenzie had got the better of Rea to grab third place and ensure that he made a break to give McAMS Yamaha a double podium finish.

Rea claimed his best result of the season in fourth for Buildbase Suzuki, with Tommy Bridewell having a resurgent race two to finish fifth ahead of Christian Iddon, who had been at the top of the standings after his second place in the first race of the day.

Glenn Irwin eventually crossed the line in seventh place ahead of Kennedy with Luke Mossey and Joe Francis completing the top ten.

Race Two Results

Pos Rider Bike Time/Gap
1 Josh BROOKES Ducati 22m36.095
2 Jason O’HALLORAN Yamaha +0.578
3 Tarran MACKENZIE Yamaha +1.805
4 Gino REA Suzuki +3.123
5 Tommy BRIDEWELL Ducati +4.419
6 Christian IDDON Ducati +4.908
7 Glenn IRWIN Honda +7.734
8 Jack KENNEDY Kawasaki +8.307
9 Luke MOSSEY BMW +11.511
10 Joe FRANCIS BMW +12.165
11 Keith FARMER Suzuki +20.656
12 Taylor MACKENZIE BMW +21.243
13 Storm STACEY Kawasaki +21.504
14 Markus REITERBERGER BMW +39.642
15 Graeme IRWIN Kawasaki +40.001
16 Bjorn ESTMENT BMW +2 Laps
Not Classified
DNF Héctor BARBERÁ BMW 4 Laps
DNF Lee JACKSON Kawasaki 13 Laps
DNF Ian HUTCHINSON BMW 13 Laps
DNF Brian McCORMACK BMW 13 Laps
DNF Kyle RYDE Suzuki 13 Laps
DNF Andrew IRWIN Honda  /
DNF Ryan VICKERS Kawasaki /
DNF Peter HICKMAN BMW  /
DNF Danny BUCHAN Kawasaki /

British Superbike Race Three

The final race of the weekend got underway with Josh Brookes leading the pack into Redgate for the first time ahead of Jason O’Halloran, but Tommy Bridewell was instantly on the attack and grabbed second on the Oxford Products Racing Ducati.

Josh Brookes
Josh Brookes

Glenn Irwin was making a move up the order, edging into third with a move on lap four, before the Honda Racing rider snatched second two laps later from Bridewell.

Bridewell’s race ended in disappointment when he retired with a technical problem on lap seven, but at the front Brookes was leading Glenn Irwin with Mackenzie piling on the pressure in third place.

On the ninth lap, there was drama for O’Halloran, when the McAMS Yamaha rider collided with Christian Iddon as the pair battled for fourth place and the collision with jammed his clutch in his lever guard, which dropped him down to eighth place by the finish.

Christian Iddon
Christian Iddon

By the tenth lap Glenn Irwin had grabbed the lead with Mackenzie in second and Brookes in third, but the McAMS Yamaha rider made his move at the Fogarty Esses and was able to hold off his Honda Racing rival.

Brookes completed the podium and his biggest points haul overhaul from the three races meant he was crowned the Monster Energy King of Donington; the VisionTrack Ducati rider leads the standings by 16-points into the final three rounds.

Christian Iddon was fourth fastest on the second of the VisionTrack Ducatis, and he heads into the final rounds in second place in the standings, with Gino Rea completing his best weekend of the season in fifth place for Buildbase Suzuki.

Andrew Irwin
Andrew Irwin

Lee Jackson led the Rapid Fulfillment FS-3 Kawasaki charge in sixth place, ahead of Round 13 winner Andrew Irwin and O’Halloran whilst Luke Mossey and Joe Francis completed the top ten.


Josh Brookes – P1

“The target is always to win a race at the slowest possible speed as the faster you go, the more you risk. In the second race, I had a couple of minor issues, so I tried to maintain my rhythm and the lead which I was able to do for the win. It was a lot trickier in the first race when I had to ride more conservatively due to the damp. The bike was moving around a lot, so it was all about consolidating the points. In the final race, I tried to keep the lead for as long as possible, but I didn’t have the pace to win so brought the bike home for some more good points. It’s been a strong weekend and great to lead the championship going into the final meeting at Brands Hatch.”

Josh Brookes
Josh Brookes
Christian Iddon – P2

“The main focus was to leave Donington Park still with a good chance of the Christian Iddonchampionship and I’ve managed that and got the boxes ticked. It was good to get on the podium in the first race in the damp conditions, but I struggled quite a lot in the second race with a couple of issues. We improved the bike for the final race but fourth was the best I could do although maybe I should have tried a different plan in hindsight. I’m just 16 points off the championship lead with all to play for at Brands Hatch, although we missed a couple of opportunities to close the gap today but either way, I’m looking forward to it.”

Glenn Irwin – P3

“If you summarise this weekend from a points view it was really disappointing because we have come away 18 points behind after starting the weekend in front, so to gain back some points in the last race was so important. In the final race I knew immediately from the warm-up lap that the Fireblade was working well, so hats off to the team, they deserved this second place position backing up Andy’s win. Again it’s an all-new Fireblade and over three races this weekend we have grabbed a first and a second place finish, Tom has also done a mega job again in Superstock. So looking ahead, it’s a big ask at Brands, I would rather be the one with the target on my back because if nothing changes you are the champion, but we won’t give up. The team never give up and neither will I.”

Glenn Irwin
Glenn Irwin
Andrew Irwin – Race 1 Winner

“This weekend has been a little up and down, but we won another race again – it was something I needed to lift my spirits. In the second race unfortunately I got hit on the first lap and took out. It’s one of those things, I have been on both ends of it before, it’s racing and we will just move on from it. In race three it took me far too long to get going, I got a good start but kind of got beat up in the first turn, which upset my rhythm a bit. It then took me about four or five laps to get into it again but once I did we had quite good pace. I feel we should have been fighting for the podium, but we didn’t and I came seventh. However the Fireblade felt good and I’ve built some confidence going into Brands, I think we can do a good job, I’m looking forward it.”

Tarran Mackenzie – Race 3 Winner

“The first race was really nice today, coming through from 19th. It was a calculated gamble to go with the harder wet tyre as I knew the track would dry out and that would leave me with some tyre at the end of the race. The aim was to get a good lap for race two, which I did. I did not expect to get third in race two, I went in having only done five dry laps all weekend, so we bolted in the setting from Silverstone and I had the first few laps of the race to adapt to it! It was a tough race, I got knocked back to seventh or eighth and had to come back through so to get third I was really happy. I knew if I could get a better start in the last race I could maybe have something to show at the end, and that was the case. I didn’t get a good start but I made my way back through, when I got to Glenn I was quite comfortable sat behind him so I knew I could maybe put some time into him if I got past in the last few laps, which I did so I was really happy with that. I’ve always wanted to win in the superbike class so it was an epic feeling. It’s been a good day for the whole team, so we’re looking forward to getting to Brands Hatch in a couple of weeks.”

Tarran Mackenzie
Tarran Mackenzie
Jason O’Halloran

“Race two today was really good, we came from 12th on the grid to finish second which was great. Race three was going pretty well, I lost a few places in the middle and I was struggling to find a way past Christian, I just needed to get by as I was losing too much time. I was trying everywhere but the bikes are quite different and the one place I could pass was into McLeans, he knew that as well and blocked me going in there and I clipped him on the way through. When I hit him the brake guard on the left hand side moved up and pulled the clutch in, I didn’t know it was in and took a couple of laps to figure out what was going on – when I got the lever back down the clutch was fried. I was able to get some pace back towards the end, but the clutch kept slipping. I’m a bit disappointed but we managed to get a couple of positions back in the last couple of laps which is a few more points. The pressure isn’t on us at Brands now, we have to turn up there, get maximum points and see what happens with everyone else. It’s not over yet, that’s for sure.”

Jason O'Halloran
Jason O’Halloran

Race Three Results

Pos Rider Bike Time/Gap
1 Tarran MACKENZIE Yamaha 22m27.782
2 Glenn IRWIN Honda +1.223
3 Josh BROOKES Ducati +3.951
4 Christian IDDON Ducati +6.742
5 Gino REA Suzuki +7.441
6 Lee JACKSON Kawasaki +7.685
7 Andrew IRWIN Honda +8.090
8 Jason O’HALLORAN Yamaha +9.274
9 Luke MOSSEY BMW  +10.383
10 Joe FRANCIS BMW +10.860
11 Peter HICKMAN BMW +14.880
12 Danny BUCHAN Kawasaki +16.795
13 Jack KENNEDY Kawasaki +18.758
14 Kyle RYDE Suzuki +18.983
15 Keith FARMER Suzuki +22.927
16 Storm STACEY Kawasaki +22.978
17 Taylor MACKENZIE BMW +30.442
18 Markus REITERBERGER BMW +31.330
19 Graeme IRWIN Kawasaki +39.956
Not Classifieds
DNF Tommy BRIDEWELL Ducati 8 Laps
DNF Héctor BARBERÁ BMW 9 Laps
DNF Ryan VICKERS Kawasaki /

British Superbike Championship Standings

Pos Rider Points
1 Josh BROOKES (Ducati) 225
2 Christian IDDON (Ducati) 209
3 Glenn IRWIN (Honda) 207
4 Jason O’HALLORAN (Yamaha) 206
5 Tarran MACKENZIE (Yamaha) 179
6 Tommy BRIDEWELL (Ducati) 146
7 Andrew IRWIN (Honda) 139
8 Lee JACKSON (Kawasaki) 131
9 Kyle RYDE (Suzuki) 130
10 Danny BUCHAN (Kawasaki) 101
11 Luke MOSSEY (BMW) 76
12 Bradley RAY (BMW) 74
13 Gino REA (Suzuki) 70
14 Peter HICKMAN (BMW) 52
15 Ryan VICKERS (Kawasaki) 45
16 Héctor BARBERÁ (BMW) 31
17 Jack KENNEDY (Kawasaki) 27
18 Joe FRANCIS (BMW) 20
19 Keith FARMER (Suzuki) 10
20 Alex OLSEN (BMW) 8
21 Taylor MACKENZIE (BMW) 5
22 Storm STACEY (Kawasaki) 4
23 Markus REITERBERGER (BMW) 2
24 Dan LINFOOT (Yamaha) 2
25 Graeme IRWIN (Kawasaki) 1

British Supersport Race One

It was Championship leader Skinner who grabbed the holeshot, notching up a 3.6 second lead after the opening lap with Ben Currie and Lee Johnston leading the chasing pack. The conditions then began to catch some riders out, with Ben Currie crashing out on the second lap.

James Westmoreland
James Westmoreland

As Skinner held his lead, Johnston then began to put the pressure on and he quickly forced the Championship leader into a mistake, with Skinner crashing out on lap five, handing Johnston the lead.

By half race distance Johnston led the way from Westmoreland and James Rose, who had worked his way into a podium position after starting from the back of the grid, and they began to chase down the ‘General’ at the front.

But with four laps remaining the Gearlink Kawasaki man of Westmoreland put the hammer down, caught and passed Johnston, and continued to push hard as he led the race.

With just three laps to go Johnston had brought the gap down to under half a second, but on the final lap he crashed out, meaning Westmoreland would take his first victory of the season. James Rose finished second with Cameron Horsman third. Ben Currie crashed out early in the race.

British Supersport Race One Result

Pos Rider Bike Time/Gap
1 James WESTMORELAND Kawasaki 23m01.033
2 James ROSE Kawasaki +18.904
3 Cameron HORSMAN – GP2 Chassis Factory +49.689
4 Bradley PERIE Yamaha +50.731
5 Tom OLIVER – GP2 Chassis Factory +51.106
6 Dan JONES – GP2 FTR +52.919
7 Rob HARTOG MV Agusta  +1:17.819
8 Alastair SEELEY – GP2 ABM Quattro +1:20.907
9 Richard KERR Triumph +1:30.972
10 Mason LAW – GP2 Spirit +1:40.730
11 Tomás DE VRIES – GP2 Chassis Factory +1:45.735
12 Kurt WIGLEY Yamaha +1 Lap
13 Harry TRUELOVE Yamaha +1 Lap
14 Alan NAYLOR Yamaha +1 Lap
15 Jack SCOTT – GP2 Harris +2 Laps
Not Classified
DNF Lee JOHNSTON Yamaha 1 Lap
DNF Gary JOHNSON Triumph 3 Laps
DNF Brad JONES Yamaha 6 Laps
DNF Cameron FRASER – GP2 Chassis Factory 8 Laps
DNF Rory SKINNER Yamaha 9 Laps
DNF Jorel BOERBOOM – GP2 Honda 9 Laps
DNF Ross PATTERSON Yamaha 9 Laps
DNF Jake ARCHER – GP2 Kalex 10 Laps
DNF Ben CURRIE Kawasaki 11 Laps
DNF Charlie NESBITT – GP2 ABM Quattro /
DNF Tom TOPARIS Yamaha /
DQ Phil WAKEFIELD Yamaha /

British Supersport Race Two

Skinner grabbed the holeshot and was able to extend a small lead over the pursuing pack over the opening laps, but team mate Brad Jones and Lee Johnston soon began chipping away. With the duo trading fastest laps, they were able to close the lead down to just 0.2s at the halfway stage of the race.

Rory Skinner
Rory Skinner

As they stated lap eight, Jones was able to find a way past his team mate to take the lead. Fighting straight back, Skinner wasted no time in retaking the lead but was unable to shake off Jones or Johnston. Continuing to trade places throughout the closing stages, the race came down to the final two laps and Skinner was able to edge away from Jones to take the victory and claim the 2020 Quattro Group British Supersport title.

Johnston completed the podium in third, with James Westmoreland in fourth ahead of Harry Truelove and the first of the of the GP2 machines of Charlie Nesbitt. After a disappointing race one, Ben Currie raced so seventh in race two.

British Supersport Race Two Result

Pos Rider Bike Time/Gap
1 Rory SKINNER Yamaha  21m53.026
2 Brad JONES Yamaha  +2.011
3 Lee JOHNSTON Yamaha +5.367
4 James WESTMORELAND Kawasaki +6.918
5 Harry TRUELOVE Yamaha  +7.167
6 Charlie NESBITT – GP2 ABM Quattro +9.133
7 Ben CURRIE Kawasaki +9.787
8 Rob HARTOG MV Agusta +19.457
9 Richard KERR Triumph +20.812
10 Jack SCOTT – GP2 Harris +24.063
11 Kurt WIGLEY Yamaha +27.613
12 Alastair SEELEY – GP2 ABM Quattro +28.109
13 Tom OLIVER – GP2 Chassis Factory +28.219
14 Mason LAW – GP2 Spirit – Spirit +28.631
15 Tom TOPARIS Yamaha +32.492
16 Cameron HORSMAN – GP2 Chassis Factory +33.393
17 Ross PATTERSON Yamaha  +40.743
18 Dan JONES – GP2 FTR +47.878
19 Jake ARCHER – GP2 Kalex +50.649
20 Phil WAKEFIELD Yamaha +51.001
21 Cameron FRASER – GP2 Chassis Factory +51.731
22 Tomás DE VRIES – GP2 Chassis Factory +1m09.988
23 Alan NAYLOR Yamaha +1 Lap
Not Classified
DNF Jamie PERRIN Yamaha 8 Laps
DNF Gary JOHNSON Triumph 11 Laps
DNF Bradley PERIE Yamaha 13 Laps
DNF Jorel BOERBOOM – GP2 Honda  /

British Supersport Standings

Pos Rider Points
1 Rory SKINNER (Yamaha) 220
2 James WESTMORELAND (Kawasaki) 143
3 Brad JONES (Yamaha) 142
4 Bradley PERIE (Yamaha) 114
5 Harry TRUELOVE (Yamaha) 103
6 Lee JOHNSTON (Yamaha) 98
7 Richard KERR (Triumph) 82
8 Rob HARTOG (MV Agusta) 67
9 Ben CURRIE (Kawasaki) 58
10 Kurt WIGLEY (Yamaha) 50
11 Jamie PERRIN (Yamaha) 43
12 James ROSE (Kawasaki) 41
13 Ross PATTERSON (Yamaha) 41
14 Phil WAKEFIELD (Yamaha) 33
15 Korie McGREEVY (Yamaha) 32
16 Alan NAYLOR (Yamaha) 18
17 Tom TOPARIS (Yamaha) 17
18 Scott SWANN (Yamaha) 12
19 Ricky TARREN (Yamaha) 11
20 Keenan ARMSTRONG (Kawasaki) 6
21 Mike NORBURY (Kawasaki) 6
22 Ben WOTTON (Triumph) 6
23 Grant McINTOSH (Yamaha) 5
24 Michael DUNLOP (Yamaha) 3

Superstock 1000 Race One

Launching off the line, it was Fraser Rogers who led the way at the end of the opening lap ahead of Chrissy Rouse and Rollo, with Danny Kent holding fourth. Trading places throughout the race, Rogers, Rouse and Rollo battled for the lead throughout the opening few laps, but a string of fast laps from Rollo saw him grab the lead and begin to stretch a lead over the two pursuers.

Billy McConnell wins from Tom Neave and Lewis Rollo
Billy McConnell wins from Tom Neave and Lewis Rollo

Things began to heat up in the closing stages as it became a seven rider battle for the podium. A fast charging McConnell climbed up through the field, taking second on lap six he continued to set fastest lap after fastest lap, closing down Rollo’s lead to take the win on the final lap. Tom Neave eventually secured third place ahead of Kent and Rouse.

Shane Richardson was top New Zealand performer in race one in 13th, while Damon Rees came come in 19th. Australian Brayden Elliott was 24th.

Brayden Elliott
Brayden Elliott

Superstock 1000 Race One Results

Pos Rider Bike Time/Gap
1 Billy McCONNELL BMW 17m50.050
2 Lewis ROLLO Aprilia +0.220
3 Tom NEAVE Honda +2.901
4 Danny KENT Kawasaki +3.603
5 Chrissy ROUSE BMW  +4.940
6 Tim NEAVE Suzuki +6.360
7 Dan LINFOOT BMW +6.874
8 Fraser ROGERS Kawasaki +6.970
9 Luke JONES Aprilia +7.531
10 Davey TODD Honda +10.503
11 Luke HEDGER Kawasaki +18.309
12 David ALLINGHAM Suzuki +27.372
13 Shane RICHARDSON BMW +29.568
14 Johnny BLACKSHAW Aprilia +38.231
15 Jordan WEAVING Suzuki +38.789
16 Joe SHELDON-SHAW Suzuki +39.164
17 Tom TUNSTALL Suzuki +39.479
18 Dave SELLARS Suzuki +41.957
19 Damon REES BMW +42.213
20 Craig NEVE BMW  +42.718
21 Josh WOOD Kawasaki 43.132
22 Matt TRUELOVE BMW +43.261
23 Dani SAEZ GUTERREZ Kawasaki +44.792
24 Brayden ELLIOTT Suzuki +46.977
25 Ashley BEECH Suzuki +50.541
26 Ian HUTCHINSON BMW 51.253
27 Luke HOPKINS Kawasak +1m22.263
28 Dave MACKAY Suzuki  +1m24.610
29 Ben BROADWAY Aprilia  +1m25.842
Not Classifieds
DNF Lee WILLIAMS Kawasaki 3 Laps
DNF David BROOK BMW 4 Laps
NC Tommy PHILP Suzuki 4 Laps

Superstock 1000 Race Two

McConnell grabbed the holeshot, leading across the line at the end of the opening lap by 0.6s ahead of Kent and Tom Neave. Neave moved into the lead on lap three, setting about trying to extend his lead at the front as title rival Chrissy Rouse moved into third.

Billy McConnell
Billy McConnell

At the halfway point, Kent had begun to close down Tom Neave at the front whilst Tim Neave was chasing down Rouse in third. With Tom Neave taking the win ahead of Kent, a mistake from Rouse on the penultimate lap saw Tim Neave find his way past Championship leader Rouse, to claim the final rostrum position. McConnell was fifth ahead of Rogers, Hedger and Rollo.

New Zealand’s Shane Richardson was 17th, while Damon Rees and Brayden Elliott both recorded DNF results. Rees crashed on the opening lap at Melbourne Hairpin and injured his AC joint, the Kiwi is undergoing medical evaluation as to if he will be able to make the championship finale.

Superstock 1000 Race Two Results

Pos Rider Bike Time/Gap
1 Tom NEAVE Honda 18m26.045
2 Danny KENT Kawasaki +0.097
3 Tim NEAVE Suzuki +3.648
4 Chrissy ROUSE BMW +3.890
5 Billy McCONNELL BMW +4.005
6 Fraser ROGERS Kawasaki +4.985
7 Luke HEDGER Kawasaki +5.929
8 Lewis ROLLO Aprilia +8.349
9 Jordan WEAVING Suzuki +13.986
10 Ian HUTCHINSON BMW +14.235
11 Matt TRUELOVE BMW  +17.521
12 Dan LINFOOT BMW +20.251
13 Joe SHELDON-SHAW Suzuki +20.452
14 Davey TODD Honda +21.320
15 David ALLINGHAM Suzuki +23.368
16 Lee WILLIAMS Kawasaki +30.234
17 Shane RICHARDSON BMW +33.868
18 Luke HOPKINS Kawasaki +41.779
19 Johnny BLACKSHAW Aprilia +42.432
20 Tom TUNSTALL Suzuki +43.456
21 Craig NEVE BMW  +45.923
22 Dani SAEZ GUTERREZ Kawasaki +48.746
23 Ashley BEECH Suzuki +57.994
24 Dave SELLARS Suzuki +59.077
25 Dave MACKAY Suzuki +1m10.470
26 David BROOK BMW +1m11.619
Not Classified
DNF Luke JONES Aprilia 3 Laps
DNF Josh WOOD Kawasaki 4 Laps
DNF Tommy PHILP Suzuki 6 Laps
DNF Ben BROADWAY Aprilia 6 Laps
DNF Brayden ELLIOTT Suzuki 7 Laps

Superstock 1000 Standings

Pos Rider Points
1 Chrissy ROUSE (BMW) 165
2 Tom NEAVE (Honda) 155
3 Lewis ROLLO (Aprilia) 117
4 Billy McCONNELL (BMW) 110
5 Tim NEAVE (Suzuki) 108
6 Danny KENT (Kawasaki) 88
7 Fraser ROGERS (Kawasaki) 82
8 Damon REES (BMW) 71
9 Luke HEDGER (Kawasaki) 51
10 Davey TODD (Honda) 42
11 Jordan WEAVING (Suzuki) 40
12 Ian HUTCHINSON (BMW) 37
13 Dan LINFOOT (BMW) 33
14 Brayden ELLIOTT (Suzuki) 32
15 Matt TRUELOVE (BMW) 28
16 Joe COLLIER (Suzuki) 23
17 Shane RICHARDSON (BMW) 20
18 David ALLINGHAM (Suzuki) 15
19 Luke JONES (Aprilia) 10
20 Richard COOPER (BMW) 9
21 Leon JEACOCK (Suzuki) 8
22 Joe SHELDON-SHAW (Suzuki) 6
23 Shaun WINFIELD (Yamaha) 6
24 Luke HOPKINS (Kawasaki) 2
25 Johnny BLACKSHAW (Aprilia) 2

Superstock 600

Luxton made the best leap off the line, leading the way after the opening lap with Rhys Irwin second and Talbot third, but as the group headed into their second lap the safety car was deployed for an incident. By lap five the car returned to the pits, with Luxton aiming to regain his two second lead over the chasing pack.

Rhys Irwin
Rhys Irwin

By half race distance Luxton had increased his gap to 1.3 second over Talbot and R. Irwin and was consistently the fastest man on track. However, in the closing stages of the race, the group caught Luxton with R. Irwin and Jack Nixon dicing for the lead, and on the final lap it was Irwin who took the victory, with Nixon second and Luxton Third.

Rhys Irwin
Rhys Irwin

Superstock 600 Results

Pos Rider Bike Time/Gap
1 Rhys IRWIN Yamaha 20m34.574
2 Jack NIXON Kawasaki +0.850
3 Ben LUXTON Kawasaki +3.959
4 Zak CORDEROY Kawasaki +5.592
5 Caolan IRWIN Kawasaki +10.051
6 George STANLEY Kawasaki +10.148
7 James ALDERSON Triumph  +11.588
8 Joe TALBOT Kawasaki +11.724
9 Liam DELVES Yamaha  +22.097
10 Simon REID Yamaha +23.634
11 TJ TOMS Yamaha +24.057
12 Daniel BROOKS Kawasaki +27.326
13 Asher DURHAM Kawasaki +43.847
14 Eugene McMANUS Kawasaki +44.149
15 William LATHROPE Triumph +44.445
16 Adam HARTGROVE Yamaha  +46.066
17 Matthew BOWER Kawasaki +47.262
18 Trystan FINOCCHIARO Kawasaki +53.398
19 Luke VERWEY Kawasaki +57.119
20 Taylor MORETON Kawasaki +1m08.093
21 Nathan DRURY Kawasaki +1:10.343
22 Bradley RICHMAN Kawasaki +1m22.971
23 Toby REYNOLDS Yamaha +1m26.466
24 Jake CAMPBELL Kawasaki +1m26.768
25 Kayla BARRINGTON Kawasaki +1m30.573
Not Classifieds
DNF Aaron SILVESTER Yamaha  4 Laps
DNF Conor WHEELER Yamaha  5 Laps
DNF Connor THOMSON Yamaha 7 Laps
DNF Sam LAFFINS Kawasaki 8 Laps
DNF Adam McLEAN Yamaha 8 Laps
DNF Josh COWARD Kawasaki 11 Laps
DNF Michael LARGE-TAYLOR Yamaha /

Superstock 600 Standings

Pos Rider Points
1 Ben LUXTON (Kawasaki) 129
3 Rhys IRWIN (Yamaha) 96
2 Zak CORDEROY (Kawasaki) 96
4 Caolan IRWIN (Kawasaki) 63
5 Jack NIXON (Kawasaki) 52
6 Liam DELVES (Yamaha) 49
7 James ALDERSON (Triumph) 48
8 Daniel BROOKS (Kawasaki) 46
9 Joe TALBOT (Kawasaki) 45
10 Simon REID (Yamaha) 38
11 Adam McLEAN (Yamaha) 27
12 George STANLEY (Kawasaki) 23
13 Eugene McMANUS (Kawasaki) 22
14 Kade VERWEY (Kawasaki) 20
15 Sam LAFFINS (Kawasaki) 18
16 Aaron SILVESTER (Yamaha) 11
17 TJ TOMS (Kawasaki) 10
18 Connor THOMSON (Yamaha) 8
19 Adam HARTGROVE (Yamaha) 7
20 Conor WHEELER (Yamaha) 7
21 Asher DURHAM (Kawasaki) 7
22 Luke VERWEY (Kawasaki) 6
23 Trystan FINOCCHIARO (Kawasaki) 4
24 Taylor MORETON (Kawasaki) 4
25 Christopher SINANAN (Kawasaki) 2
26 William LATHROPE (Triumph) 1
27 Matthew BOWER (Kawasaki) 1

British Junior Supersport Championship

It was Taylor who led the way after the opening lap, with Jones and Davie closely behind as they looked to pull an early gap on the chasing pack. The leader then quickly began to post quick lap times as started to increase his gap over second and third.

Seth Crump crashed out of race 1
Seth Crump crashed out of race 1

By half-race distance Taylor had a three second lead over Davie who held second place, and the number six rider held the lead to take the flag.

After a crash on the first lap for Owen Jenner and Seth Crump, it means that Jenner takes the 2020 Hel Performance British Junior Supersport title.

Junior Supersport Race One

Pos Rider Bike Time/Gap
1 Taz TAYLOR Kawasaki 20m09.228
2 Adon DAVIE Kawasaki +4.990
3 Lewis JONES KTM  +14.956
4 Zak SHELTON Kawasaki +21.263
5 Lynden LEATHERLAND Kawasaki +21.615
6 Kam DIXON Kawasaki +26.219
7 Cameron DAWSON Kawasaki +28.117
8 Finn SMART Kawasaki  +35.244
9 Cameron HALL Kawasaki +36.524
10 Brody CROCKFORD Yamaha +49.451
11 Christopher JOHNSON Kawasaki +55.850
12 James McMANUS Kawasaki +1m04.985
13 Connor SELLORS Kawasaki +1m15.939
14 Jake HOPPER Kawasaki +1m21.150
15 Oscar PINSON Kawasaki +1:21.247
16 Joe ELLIS Kawasaki +1m26.901
17 Lewis JONES Kawasaki +1m42.103
18 Kai DICKINSON Kawasaki +1m45.000
19 Mcauley LONGMORE Kawasaki 1m52.381
20 Kevin COYNE Kawasaki +1m57.175
21 Bradley WILSON Kawasaki +1m58.893
22 Scarlett ROBINSON Kawasaki +1 Lap
23 Rossi BANHAM Yamaha +1 Lap
24 Luke GILBY Kawasaki +1 Lap
Not Classifieds
DNF Andrew SMYTH Kawasaki 1 Lap
DNF James ROSE Kawasaki 1 Lap
DNF Declan CONNELL Kawasaki 4 Laps
DNF Ben TAYLOR Kawasaki 5 Laps
DNF Alessandro VALENTE KTM 5 Laps
DNF Lucca ALLEN Kawasaki 6 Laps
DNF Chloe JONES Yamaha  6 Laps
DNF Samuel LAIDLOW Kawasaki 6 Laps
DNF Kier ARMSTRONG KTM 8 Laps
DNF Owen JENNER Kawasaki 9 Laps
DNF Seth CRUMP Kawasaki 9 Laps

Junior Supersport Race Two

It was the newly crowned Champion Owen Jenner who grabbed the holeshot, slowly extending his lead over the pursuing pack. However, a fast-charging Crockford was able to take over front running on lap three whilst Adon Davie and Lyndon Leatherland were also in close contention.

Brody Crockford
Brody Crockford

Trading places for much of the race, in the closing stages Crockford was able to take back the lead and pull away from the pursuers to eventually take the win by 5.5s ahead of Jenner and Leatherland. Seth Crump also came back from a Race 1 crash to claim fifth in Race 2.

Junior Supersport Race Two Results

Pos Rider Bike Time/Gap
1 Brody CROCKFORD Yamaha 17m54.645
2 Owen JENNER Kawasaki +5.590
3 Lynden LEATHERLAND Kawasaki +6.166
4 Adon DAVIE Kawasaki +6.253
5 Seth CRUMP Kawasaki +6.374
6 Cameron DAWSON Kawasaki +9.157
7 Declan CONNELL Kawasaki +9.512
8 Kam DIXON Kawasaki +9.895
9 Taz TAYLOR Kawasaki +16.099
10 Zak SHELTON Kawasaki +18.729
11 James McMANUS Kawasaki +24.480
12 Andrew SMYTH Kawasaki +29.651
13 Jake HOPPER Kawasaki +33.889
14 Lewis JONES Kawasaki +33.983
15 Lucca ALLEN Kawasaki +34.088
16 Joe ELLIS Kawasaki +34.630
17 Cameron HALL Kawasaki +35.222
18 Christopher JOHNSON Kawasaki +36.420
19 Chloe JONES Yamaha +36.629
20 Kevin COYNE Kawasaki +45.791
21 Connor SELLORS Kawasaki +52.045
22 Bradley WILSON Kawasaki +52.276
23 Mcauley LONGMORE Kawasaki +59.635
24 Rossi BANHAM Yamaha +1m05.257
25 Samuel LAIDLOW Kawasaki +1m05.601
26 James ROSE Kawasaki +1m21.803
27 Luke GILBY Kawasaki +1m48.876
28 Scarlett ROBINSON Kawasaki +1 Lap
Not Classified
DNF Ben TAYLOR Kawasaki 1 Lap
DNF Oscar PINSON Kawasaki 2 Laps
DNF Lewis JONES KTM 2 Laps
DNF Kier ARMSTRONG KTM 2 Laps
DNF Finn SMART Kawasaki 3 Laps
DNF Kai DICKINSON Kawasaki /
DNF Alessandro VALENTE KTM /

Junior Supersport Standings

Pos Rider Points
1 Owen JENNER (Kawasaki) 176
2 Seth CRUMP (Kawasaki) 131
3 Brody CROCKFORD (Yamaha) 116
4 Cameron DAWSON (Kawasaki) 95
5 Zak SHELTON (Kawasaki) 85
6 Adon DAVIE (Kawasaki) 82
7 Oscar PINSON (Kawasaki) 62
8 Osian JONES (Kawasaki) 59
9 Kam DIXON (Kawasaki) 57
10 Lewis JONES #25 (KTM) 56
11 Lynden LEATHERLAND (Kawasaki) 54
12 James McMANUS (Kawasaki) 52
13 Joseph THOMAS (Kawasaki) 47
14 Ash BARNES (Kawasaki) 41
15 Kier ARMSTRONG (KTM) 38
16 Cameron HALL (Kawasaki) 38
17 Taz TAYLOR (Kawasaki) 32
18 Jake HOPPER (Kawasaki) 25
19 Lewis JONES #3 (Kawasaki) 22
20 Andrew SMYTH (Kawasaki) 20
21 Declan CONNELL (Kawasaki) 19
22 Chloe JONES (Yamaha) 16
23 Finn SMART (Kawasaki) 16
24 Christopher JOHNSON (Kawasaki) 16
25 Lucca ALLEN (Kawasaki) 12
26 Kai DICKINSON (Kawasaki) 7
27 Harris BEECH (Yamaha) 7
28 Alessandro VALENTE (KTM) 4
29 Mcauley LONGMORE (Kawasaki) 4
30 Connor SELLORS (Kawasaki) 3
31 Rossi BANHAM (Yamaha) 2

Source: MCNews.com.au

Josh Brookes and PBM get back on track

PBM Ducati

Josh Brookes and team-mate Christian Iddon followed up a shake-down at Teesside Motorsport Park earlier this month with a fully blown exclusive test at Croft Circuit this week.

Australian Brookes finished a close runner up after winning ten races in 2019, including a hat-trick at the final round, so aims to go one better when the series gets underway at Donington Park over the weekend of August 7/8/9th.

Joining him in Paul Bird’s team is new recruit Christian Iddon who is now based in the North East and will have an identical factory-supported 1000cc VisionTrack Ducati Panigale V4 R at his disposal for the proposed six-round series.

Brookes was BSB champion in 2015 and is the third most successful rider in the history of the series winning 49 races so far.

Iddon, meanwhile, was the 2019 Rider’s Cup champion despite having suffered a broken leg during the year.

Christian Iddon – Image by Tony Todd

Both riders enjoyed a productive day at Croft where they spent time developing the new bikes following the worldwide shutdown of sport in March, just as the 2020 season was about to start.

The revised calendar for the Bennetts British Superbike Championship will be over six rounds, all featuring three races making 18 rounds in total.

2020 BSB Calendar

  1. Aug 7/9 Rounds 1/2/3 Donington Park (National Circuit)
  2. Aug 21/23 Rounds 4/5/6 Snetterton
  3. Sept 4/6 Rounds 7/8/9 Silverstone (National Circuit) – Behind Closed Doors
  4. Sept 18/20 Rounds 10/11/12 Oulton Park
  5. Oct 2/4 Rounds 13/14/15 Donington Park (GP Circuit)
  6. Oct 16/18 Rounds 16/17/18 Brands Hatch (GP Circuit)

Check out a recent great wide ranging interview with Josh Brookes Here

Source: MCNews.com.au

We speak to Josh Brookes ahead of the Brands Hatch BSB finale

2019 British Superbike Championship

Brands Hatch Showdown Preview


The Bennetts British Superbike Championship title fight will do down to the wire this weekend as protagonists Scott Redding, Josh Brookes and Tommy Bridewell battle it out for the final time in 2019 in their quest to be crowned champion at Brands Hatch.

We spoke to Josh Brookes overnight about the weekend ahead. The Australian trails Be Wiser Ducati team-mate Scott Redding by 28-points heading into this weekend triple-header.

Josh Brookes

“Under normal circumstances a second and a third at Donington in British Superbike would be a good achievement, but when the championship leader gets two wins then that makes that performance not so good after all, and that’s the reality that I am facing at the moment. 

BSB RNd BrandsHatch Josh Brookes Celebrate
Josh Brookes did the double at Brands Hatch earlier in the year

“The championship points are well favoured towards Scott, mathematically the championship is always a possibility until the end, or until the numbers rule it out, but I will go into this weekend with the most optimism I can and try as hard as I can to get the results, but it’s diffifcult to think that Scott is going to offer a poor performance.

BSB Rnd Donington DYeomans Brookes Redding AROA
Brookes leading Redding at Donington earlier this month

“I am standing here in poor weather at the moment, it is drizzling rain, the last round is often affected by weather here so we never know what can happen.

BSB Rnd Assen Sun Josh Brookes AUYA
Josh Brookes

“All I have to do is focus on the best results I can, rather than thinking I have to finish a certain place etc. so that almost probably takes the pressure off me a little. I have to just go out and win, that is all I can do. Then how Scott goes out and plays it will decide the final results.

BSB Rnd Oulton Park Friday Brookes
Josh Brookes

“Every year I have been in BSB I have given 100 per cent and irrespective of the outcome I am proud of what I have achieved this year.” 

BSB RNd BrandsHatch SBK Race Podium Brookes Bridewell Redding A
Josh Brookes did the double at Brands Hatch earlier in the year

BSB 2019 so far…

After 24 races there have been seven winners and 12 different podium finishers, but it comes down to three champion elects ahead of the final three races of the 2019 season on the Grand Prix circuit.

Scott Redding heads the standings coming into the crucial decider and the former MotoGP contender willl attempt to claim the title in his debut season to make Bennetts BSB history. The 26-year-old has delivered an incredible performance so far in the Showdown, to return to Kent with a 28-point advantage over his Be Wiser Ducati teammate.

BSB Rnd Donington DYeomans Brookes Redding AROA
Josh Brookes and Scott Redding – Image by David Yeomans
Scott Redding

“This year has been really good; I have enjoyed the championship and the racing has been great and now we have just got Brands Hatch to try and finish the job! I feel like I have been the strongest rider in the Showdown so far but I have been building all season for this. The results at Brands Hatch earlier in the year doesn’t show how strong we really were there and the pace that we had; I took a gamble on the tyre choice in race one and then had a podium in race two and we had pole position. I think some people think that it might not be the best track for me and I might not be as strong there, but when people doubt me I want it even more. I am really calm now and with how I am and what we can do at Brands Hatch. I get even more motivation from the energy and the big support that I get from the fans and I think there is going to be a big atmosphere next weekend.

BSB Rnd Donington DYeomans Bridwell Redding Brookes AUYA
Scott Redding, Josh Brookes and Tommy Bridewell were top performers at Donington – Image by David Yeomans

“I am definitely in a prime position; I didn’t start the season saying what I could do and I have just been working hard and building up so that we were strong for the Showdown. I am getting stronger and more confident. I wanted to build throughout the year and now it’s the time.”

On the opposite side of the garage, Josh Brookes is ready to take the title fight all the way to the line. The 2015 champion was unstoppable at the Grand Prix circuit earlier in the season, claiming a double win, making him the most successful rider at Brands Hatch currently on the grid.

BSB Rnd Donington DYeomans Josh Brookes AROA
Josh Brookes – Image by David Yeomans

However, the pair also have a determined Tommy Bridewell ready to spoil their title celebrations, and the Oxford Racing Ducati rider thrives on his underdog status as he aims for his first championship victory, having finished third in the series back in 2014.

The title contenders are firmly focused on claiming the maximum 75 points available. However, they will face tough competition for the final honours of the 2019 season with the closest opposition coming from Danny Buchan, Tarran Mackenzie and Peter Hickman who currently lock out the remaining positions in the top six.

BSB Rnd Donington DYeomans Tommy Bridewell AROA
Tommy Bridewell – Image by David Yeomans

Australian Jason O’Halloran heads south to Kent for the season finale sitting ninth in the standings, a single point ahead of Christian Iddon, and with Andrew Irwin and Xavi Fores within striking distance given a strong enough end of season result. After admitting to struggling for feel and grip which resulted in poor 11-10 results at the previous Donington Park round, O’Halloran will be keen to finish the season strong. He will have three bites of the cherry, as there is an extra race on the usual double header programme, with 75 points up for grabs; if he could record three strong results it could move him up the finishing order in this year’s championship standings.

BSB Rnd Donington DYeomans Jason O’Halloran AROA
Jason O’Halloran – Image by David Yeomans
Jason O’Halloran

“That was one of the more difficult weekends. We struggled all weekend. Friday was wet, Saturday was dry and both races today were dry. We generally struggled to find a feeling. I struggled for grip in the first race and in one of the biggest surprises; I really struggled on new tyres. I got stronger towards the end once the tyre went away and did my fastest lap on the last lap of the race which is a bit backwards. Race two was better but I struggled with wheelies on the stop start corners, I’m having to use the rear brake so much we’re just getting beat on the straights. We need to see what we can do to improve it to see if we can finish the year off good.”

BSB Oulton Park R Jason O’Halloran AROA
Jason O’Halloran – Image by David Yeomans

Bennetts British Superbike Championship standings

Pos Rider Total
1 Scott REDDING (Ducati) 645
2 Josh BROOKES (Ducati) 617
3 Tommy BRIDEWELL (Ducati) 580
4 Danny BUCHAN (Kawasaki) 559
5 Tarran MACKENZIE (Yamaha) 538
6 Peter HICKMAN (BMW) 530
7 Xavi FORÉS (Honda) 186
8 Andrew IRWIN (Honda) 181
9 Jason O’HALLORAN (Yamaha) 167
10 Christian IDDON (BMW) 166
11 Bradley RAY (Suzuki) 121
12 Luke MOSSEY (Suzuki) 117
13 Luke STAPLEFORD (Suzuki) 100
14 Glenn IRWIN (Kawasaki / BMW) 84
15 Dan LINFOOT (Yamaha) 81
16 Ryan VICKERS (Kawasaki) 68
17 Josh ELLIOTT (Suzuki) 58
18 Keith FARMER (BMW) 54
19 Héctor BARBERÁ (Kawasaki) 47
20 Claudio CORTI (Kawasaki) 34
21 James ELLISON (BMW / MV Aug / Suz) 28
22 Michael LAVERTY (BMW) 12
23 Alex OLSEN (BMW) 10
24 Ben CURRIE (Kawasaki) 9
25 Dean HARRISON (Kawasaki) 8
26 Joe FRANCIS (BMW) 7
27 Billy McCONNELL (Suzuki) 6
28 David ALLINGHAM (Yamaha) 6
29 Gino REA (MV Agusta) 4
30 Richard COOPER (Suzuki) 3
31 Sam COVENTRY (Kawasaki) 1

Source: MCNews.com.au

Redding doubles up at Donington | Sunday BSB Report

2019 British Superbikes

Round 11 Donington Park – Sunday Report


The Bennetts British Superbike Championship Showdown continued with Scott Redding dominating the proceedings, claiming wins across both Superbike races at Donington ahead of Josh Brookes and Tommy Bridewell, and taking a 28-point lead into the Brands Hatch finale ahead of Aussie Brookes.

BSB Rnd Donington DYeomans Brookes Redding AROA
Josh Brookes leads Scott Redding – 2019 BSB Donington Park, Round 11

After three previous podiums finishes, Chrissy Rouse and the Morello Racing Kawasaki finally got to stand on the top step of the podium in the Pirelli Superstock 1000 class when they claimed a brilliant win, from Richard Cooper and Jordan Weaving. Aussie Levi Day finished in seventh, with Brayden Elliott 19th.

BSB Rnd Donington DYeomans STK Brayden Elliott AROA
Brayden Elliott – 2019 BSB Donington Park, Round 11

Jack Kennedy also doubled up on the Supersport wins, fighting off Brad Jones for the win, with Rory Skinner completing the podium. In the Superstock 600 class Ben Luxton claimed top honours, from Storm Stacey and Eunan McGlinchey.


British Superbikes Race 1

At the start of the opening race Brookes had launched off the line to lead the pack into Redgate for the first time ahead of Redding and Christian Iddon, with Bradley Ray and Tommy Bridewell in close contention.

BSB Rnd Donington DYeomans Scott Redding AROA
Scott Redding – 2019 BSB Donington Park, Round 11

Brookes was heading the pack for Be Wiser Ducati until the third lap when Iddon went for a decisive move with the pair touching at Starkeys Bridge. The move unsettled Brookes and dropped him back to fourth and into the clutches of Peter Hickman.

Redding then had the advantage from Bridewell and Iddon, and started edging out a gap to try and break the pack. The championship leader had been able to set a consistent pace to break Bridewell, but at mid-race distance the rain flags were shown and the Oxford Racing Ducati rider pushed to bridge the gap.

BSB Rnd Assen Sun Scott Redding Cover AROA
Scott Redding – 2019 BSB Donington Park, Round 11

Redding though was able to keep his cool to give him the edge at the chequered flag, but behind him the battle for third had turned into a three-way fight between Iddon, Brookes and Hickman.

Iddon was holding the position for Tyco BMW, but as he exited Goddards he lost a footpeg and then had to try to deliver a damage limitation performance which saw him end the race in sixth place as Brookes took advantage of the situation.

BSB Rnd Donington DYeomans Andrew Irwin AROA
Andrew Irwin – 2019 BSB Donington Park, Round 11

Brookes held off Hickman for third with Andrew Irwin fighting his way through from 14th on the grid to claim fifth place for Honda Racing, pushing Iddon back with two laps to go as he continued to try and fight on.

Xavi Forés was seventh ahead of Ryan Vickers, who scored another top 10 finish for RAF Regular & Reserve Kawasaki following a fierce battle with Luke Mossey and Danny Buchan who grabbed tenth place ahead of Jason O’Halloran and Tarran Mackenzie.

BSB Rnd Donington DYeomans Billy McConnell AROA
Billy McConnell – 2019 BSB Donington Park, Round 11

Fellow Australians Billy McConnell and Ben Currie came home in 18th and 19th respectively in Race 1.


British Superbikes Race 2

In race two Brookes was determined to come out and try to take the fight to his teammate. At the start of the race, the Australian got a flying start off the line to lead into Redgate for the first time ahead of Iddon and Redding, with the second placed Tyco BMW rider trying to dive for the lead at Craner Curves before the 2015 champion instantly cut back into the lead.

BSB Rnd Donington DYeomans Scott Redding AROA
Race 2 Start – 2019 BSB Donington Park, Round 11

As Redding moved into second a lap later to force ahead of Iddon, further down the field Billy McConnell crashed out unhurt at the Esses, leaving gravel across the circuit. The BMW Safety Car deployed and as the pack lined up Brookes had the advantage from Redding, Bridewell, Peter Hickman, Iddon and Buchan as the Showdown Title Fighters were locked together.

BSB Rnd Donington DYeomans Josh Brookes AROA
Josh Brookes – 2019 BSB Donington Park, Round 11

On the restart though Redding had initially dropped back from Brookes to try and force more heat into the tyres and it worked; Brookes ran wide into Redgate and Redding had the opportunity he needed to make a pass for the lead.

Redding then pushed to bridge a gap but the advantage kept changing, later the championship leader admitted he was suffering with a gearing issue that was causing him to be less consistent with his lap times. Brookes had been reeling him in over the closing stages but it wasn’t enough to make a move on his teammate and he was forced to settle for second place ahead of Bridewell.

Buchan had maintained his fourth place after a tough opening race at Donington Park to fire the FS-3 Racing Kawasaki ahead of Iddon on the Tyco BMW and Bradley Ray, who overcame the disappointment of a technical retirement in race one to hold off a hard-charging Irwin for sixth place.

BSB Rnd Donington DYeomans Danny Buchan AROA
Danny Buchan – 2019 BSB Donington Park, Round 11

Irwin had been also battling with his Honda Racing teammate Forés, who had to settle for eighth place with the McAMS Yamaha pairing of Tarran Mackenzie and O’Halloran completing the top 10.

It was a disastrous race for Hickman who had been battling for the fourth place when he lost the chain for the Smiths Racing BMW, ending his race prematurely.

BSB Rnd Donington DYeomans Ben Currie AROA
Ben Currie – 2019 BSB Donington Park, Round 11

Race 2 saw Aussie Ben Currie improve on his Race 1 efforts into 18th, while Billy McConnell recorded a DNF.

Scott Redding – 1-1

“I felt comfortable in race one, so I was able to manage everything quite well. I felt settled leading the race but when a few spots of rain began to fall, I eased off a bit as I didn’t want to get caught Scott Reddingout. When it became clear the rain had stopped, I was able to set the fastest lap of the race and pull away again, so it worked out well in the end. The second race was tricky too as I had a problem with the gear-shifter which meant the bike was pushing me wide into the corners. Josh upped his pace too, which I knew he would, and the gap came down, so I was pleased to bring the bike home and get the double.”

BSB Rnd Donington DYeomans Bridwell Redding Brookes AUYA
Scott Redding – 2019 BSB Donington Park, Round 11
Josh Brookes – 3-2

“I made the ideal start to race one, but I knew immediately that something was wrong as I couldn’t find an apex and it was a bit confusing as to why the bike wasn’t working like it had done in qualifying. I lost a couple of places, but I managed to regroup and keep a good pace to come through to take a solid third. I improved to second in race two which I should be pleased with as many riders would Brookes & Reddinggive anything to be in that position but I’m smiling through gritted teeth as I don’t feel like I’m riding as well as I can. I don’t feel like I’m getting the best out of myself so I’m disappointed with the results but there are still 75 points available, so we’ll see what happens at the final round.”

BSB Rnd Donington DYeomans Josh Brookes AROA
Josh Brookes – 2019 BSB Donington Park, Round 11
Tommy Bridewell – 2-3

“Another positive weekend for myself and the Oxford Racing Ducati, Moto Rapido Racing team, with the ever changing weather we just struggled to find the sweet spot, but as always the team worked flawlessly and we’ll take the positives into the final round at Brands Hatch in a few weeks time. Thanks for all the support people show me trackside and on the socials, we’ll keep fighting, it’s not over yet.”

BSB Rnd Donington DYeomans Tommy Bridewell AROA
Tommy Bridewell – 2019 BSB Donington Park, Round 11
Tarran Mackenzie – 12-9

“As we didn’t get a dry warm-up, we couldn’t try something different so we went into race one a little blind. The bike didn’t feel the best and I struggled a lot on the front. We made a change for race two which definitely helped the bike, I had a lot stronger pace and was a lot closer to the guys in front which was good. I’m feeling better in myself and on the bike and gaining a lot more confidence. Brands was good for us earlier in the year until the crash so hopefully we can end the year on a high.”

BSB Rnd Donington DYeomans Taylor MacKenzie AROA
Tarran Mackenzie – 2019 BSB Donington Park, Round 11
Jason O’Halloran – 11-10

“That was one of the more difficult weekends. We struggled all weekend. Friday was wet, Saturday was dry and both races today were dry. We generally struggled to find a feeling. I struggled for grip in the first race and in one of the biggest surprises, I really struggled on new tyres. I got stronger towards the end once the tyre went away and did my fastest lap on the last lap of the race which is a bit backwards. Race two was better but I struggled with wheelie on the stop start corners, I’m having to use the rear brake so much we’re just getting beat on the straights. We need to see what we can do to improve it to see if we can finish the year off good.”

BSB Rnd Donington DYeomans Jason O’Halloran AROA
Jason O’Halloran – 2019 BSB Donington Park, Round 11
Peter Hickman – 4-DNF

“Results-wise, it’s been a bit of a mixed day but, overall, our pace has been strong throughout. We’ve made more improvements to the bike which has helped us get closer to the front group. In the first race, I made a slight mistake early on when the bike went into neutral at the Melbourne Loop, but I regained the lost places pretty quickly although I didn’t quite have the pace to get onto the podium. Race two was going equally as well and although I had a few slides after the safety car had gone in, the lap times were good, and I felt strong in fifth. I was hanging on a bit to the front group but then the chain snapped which was unusual to say the least but it’s just one of those things and nothing the team could have done so we’ll look to end the season strongly with three strong rides at Brands Hatch.”

BSB Rnd Donington DYeomans Peter Hickman AROA
Peter Hickman – 2019 BSB Donington Park, Round 11
Bradley Ray – DNF-6

“We wanted to prove Oulton wasn’t a fluke this weekend. Obviously we know we were quick at Cadwell but the results didn’t come, then we were on the podium at Oulton but struggled at Assen a little bit, going in the wrong direction over the weekend with the bike. Here we were strong again and I think we could have taken the fight to the front guys a bit more but we had the issue in race one and that meant not only did we miss that chance in that race it also ruined race two for us, having to come from so far back. It’s a shame, but I think the performance in race two was good, to come through from that far down. Hopefully we can get the luck at Brands and finish strongly.”

BSB Rnd Donington DYeomans Brookes Redding Bridewell AUYA
Race 2 podium, 1) Scott Redding, 2) Josh Brookes, 3) Tommy Bridewell – 2019 BSB Donington Park, Round 11

Bennetts British Superbikes Results/Standings

Source: MCNews.com.au