Three different Superbike victors across opening BSB weekend

2023 British Superbike Championship
Round One – Silverstone

The 2023 Bennetts British Superbike Championship kicked off at Silverstone on the Easter weekend with three different race winners, representing three different teams and manufacturers stood atop the podium.

Reigning Champions LAMI OMG Racing Yamaha had the edge in Saturday’s Bennetts BikeSocial Sprint race with Kyle Ryde beating home Tommy Bridewell and Josh Brookes in the season opener.

Superbike Race Two

The second race of the weekend marked the triumphant return of Josh Brookes to winning ways as the double Champion claimed his first victory in two seasons, delivering a determined ride on his first race weekend with the FHO Racing BMW Motorrad Team.

Brookes held off the BeerMonster Ducati teammates led by Tommy Bridewell by just 0.094s when the race was red flagged with three laps remaining when Danny Buchan crashed out, claiming his 55th win in the Championship as Glenn Irwin completed the podium after fighting his way through the pack.

O’Halloran held onto fifth after holding off Leon Haslam with reigning Quattro Group British Supersport Champion Jack Kennedy in seventh place. Danny Kent had another solid performance in eighth place ahead of Andrew Irwin and Lee Jackson, who fought his way through to tenth after starting 16th on the grid.

Superbike Race Two Results

Superbike Race Three

Glenn Irwin then became the third different race winner of the opening round in a hard fought final race of the weekend as he held off tough opposition to end the weekend on top for PBM on the BeerMonster Ducati.

Jason O’Halloran, Brookes and Kent had all been at the front of the pack before Irwin captured the advantage on lap 18. He was defending hard from Brookes who had regained second place with three laps to go, whilst Bridewell had also moved up the order and fought his way into third.

O’Halloran meanwhile regained fourth place on the final lap, as he got ahead of Kent with Haslam again in the leading battle to finish race three in sixth place.

Josh Brookes leaves Silverstone as the championship leader after making his best start to a BSB season in 14 years.

Superbike Race Three Results

BSB Rider Quotes

Josh Brookes

“It’s perfect, to lead the championship after the first round is ideal. You know, we are always optimistic we are going to have a good bike, good package, but to get into the opening round and have three podiums is ideal. We are in a perfect place to build for the rounds to come.

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“I think as a racer and as a competitor you always have this idea that everything will go smoothly and you’ll win everything. I think it’s natural for competitors to have that mindset, so I always believed that if things were good we could do this and better, but you also have this realistic mind that it’s a difficult series, lots of good riders and it’s always hard fought racing and you can never be sure you are gonna get good results like this, so definitely pleased to take these positions.

“I have spent a lot of time thinking about the moment when I would win again; when I was winning regularly you would think it would just come. The last two years have been hard, people start to doubt you and I don’t blame them for that. It feels good to win for myself, the team, and it is a feeling of success.”

Glenn Irwin

“It didn’t go to plan at the beginning! The first race start today was terrible, again I did something not so good with the clutch. My plan was if you’re in the front two or three, take it easy through the last corner as it’s very hard on tyres and if one or two get by you are still in the top four. That wasn’t the case, and I ended up back again and I tried to conserve my tyre and had to try and pass Leon Haslam.

“Danny Kent was doing a really good job; I could see where he was weak as I had spent three years on the Honda and that was probably an advantage. I just did a bit of a dive, then he came back through, once he did I repassed him and it was then I decided to try and drop the hammer a bit more.

“It it was just really good set up by the boys in the team and they worked very hard last night. I didn’t sleep thinking how we could improve last night! The bike was fantastic, we could still be strong in some areas but I struggled a lot in the last corner and turn one but I never gave up.

“I said this morning I wanted to play like an Oscar winning role today and not a support role and I knew after warm up that we could do that. Today’s first race I think was really good because we came 13th to third and it was tough, but I really enjoyed it and to go on then and go on and grab the Bafta at the end of the day was just fantastic!”

Tommy Bridewell

“First and foremost, it’s been a great start to the season and to get three podiums for the team first time out, and at one of my bogey circuits, is full credit to them. I got caught up with Kyle Ryde in the first race and the Yamahas have always been good in the last sector which enabled him to continually make a move at turn one. I had to keep coming back on him as I could see Josh had opened a slight gap. With four to five laps to go, I knew it was time to go but whilst it would have been tough to get by him, the red flag brought the race to an early end. The final race was tough due to starting from ninth and I perhaps underestimated how hard it was going to be, but I got up to third, so it’s been a great start to my time at BeerMonster Ducati.”

British Superbike Championship Points