Bridewell tops Snetterton opener ahead of Brookes and O’Halloran

2023 British Superbike Championship
Round Five – Snetterton
Saturday

Superbike Qualifying

Jason O’Halloran claimed his first pole position of the season at Snetterton on Saturday afternoon. The O’Show fired to the top of the times with Glenn Irwin splitting the McAMS Yamaha team-mates as Tito Rabat impressed on his debut with the team by completing the front row.

Championship leader Tommy Bridewell headed the second row of the grid in fourth position on the second of the BeerMonster Ducatis ahead of previous Champions Josh Brookes and Leon Haslam who complete the second row.

Superbike Qualifying Results

Superbike Race One

Tommy Bridewell claimed his second win of the season as the BeerMonster Ducati rider emerged on top following a last lap scrap for supremacy at Snetterton as three different teams and manufacturers vied for victory.

After an intense twelve-lap battle, it came down to the final lap in the BikeSocial Sprint Race with Glenn Irwin leading the pack ahead of Bridewell, Josh Brookes and Jason O’Halloran. However, the fight would go all the way to the chequered flag as Bridewell dived ahead at Nelsons to put himself ahead of his BeerMonster Ducati teammate for the lead.

Irwin was looking to strike back, but he also had Brookes for company and the FHO Racing BMW Motorrad Team rider went for a last corner move on the brakes into Murrays and that gave the Australian the edge for second place.

It was then a drag to the line for third place and the final podium position and O’Halloran managed to get a better exit on the McAMS Yamaha from Murrays, and he was able to hold off Irwin to the finish to relegate him to fourth by just 0.056s.

O’Halloran had taken the initial lead at the start, but Irwin had taken the advantage on the opening lap. However, by lap seven Bridewell had moved ahead and then it was a battle of the teammates until Brookes and O’Halloran closed the advantage in the final laps.

Christian Iddon equalled his best result of the season after fighting to fifth, breaking the chasing pack of Danny Kent who returned to the top six and Lee Jackson on the Cheshire Mouldings Kawasaki.

Jack Kennedy battled with Charlie Nesbitt to take eighth with Tito Rabat embroiled in the fight at the front in the early stages of the race, holding a top ten finish on his debut with the McAMS Yamaha team.

It was a tough opening race for the LAMI OMG Racing Yamaha team with local contender Ryan Vickers retiring from the race and Kyle Ryde finishing in 13th. Meanwhile Honda Racing UK’s rookie Franco Bourne finished in 19th on his BSB debut.

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Superbike Race One Results

Tommy Bridewell – P1

“It was a tough race, it was harder than I wanted it to be and harder than I expected! I just felt really nervous on the grid because I knew I had race winning pace and I expected myself to win. With that comes anxiousness, nervousness, you want to win by 10 seconds, all the usual.

“My start really really made that race so much harder than it needed to be. The ideal scenario was a nice clean start, get away at the front, conserve a bit of energy, save my tyre, and off I go at the end. That was the plan and it worked out the opposite. So I just had to work hard, I knew I could make passes, but I didn’t know where I could. I rode on my own all weekend so I didn’t know where I was fast or slow compared to other riders!

“Coming onto the last lap I said to myself ‘let’s go toe to toe, same bike, same team, may the best man win.’ I just got a good run on him onto the back straight, I could see on my board that Josh was right behind me, plus zero, and Jason was there as well. So it was a battle not just for the race win but obviously you could finish first or fourth. So I knew I had to pass Glenn, I was more thinking about lunging him in the last corner.

“I got the run and I was like ‘you know what let’s just go now, it’s hard to pass in that last sector, so let’s just do it now.’ And that’s what I did, good run out, good run through the Bomb Hole, round through Coram and then I defended into the left because I also knew once the Ducati does pick its feet up and go there’s not much that’s gonna outdrag it to the line. So credit to the team, I’ve won many a race, but I’ve never won here at Snett, so it’s nice. I really worked hard for that and I felt like I rode a really good strong race so I’m chuffed to bits.”

Josh Brookes – P2

“The start of this weekend wasn’t going well, we had some sensor issues yesterday for the opening session and we spent a lot of time in the garage. For FP2 we made a change and a good step forward, I felt some momentum, but then later every change we’d made seemed to have gone in the wrong way and we didn’t really seem to improve. So, we ended up with a bit of a combination of what we had in FP2, just with some slight adjustments and that’s what I had for qualifying. We qualified strong in fifth and the BMW felt good, but as I hadn’t had the same bike across the weekend I wasn’t too confident in the early stages of the race and in the opening laps I lost a few places as I wasn’t really forcing my position on people and you really need to do that here.

“As the race went on, I got more relaxed with the bike, understood it better and was staying consistent. The tyre grip was good – I had a few moments, as we all do, spinning the tyre but nothing I couldn’t manage. At one point I thought I’d have to settle for third as I got past Jason, with Tommy and Glenn too far away, but I managed to close them up as they were fighting as well. At the final turn I didn’t have that plan, but it got to the point where I was coming in and I could see an opportunity, so I went round the outside of Glenn and made my pass. I’m pleased for all the team and sponsors, and everyone as a supporter to be back on the podium today. Fair credit to Tommy he rode a brilliant race and deserved that win.”

Jason O’Halloran – P3

“It was a good first race for us. We’ve had good pace all weekend and I’m feeling good on the bike. I enjoyed the race, but it was a bit more tricky as it’s hard to stay ahead of the bikes which are faster in a straight line, but we’ll see if we can improve our strong points and make some steps forward for tomorrow and hopefully the long race will help us too, but it’s nice to be on the podium!”

Glenn Irwin – P4

“We had some issues yesterday so today’s FP3 was like my FP1, but I felt comfortable on the bike when we got to qualifying. In the race, I felt strong and was surprised when the gap went up to 0.6 Glenn Irwinseconds as I wasn’t deliberately trying to put the hammer down. When Tommy came by me, I could see he was strong, and I learnt a lot from him. I was struggling with the rear through the Bomb Hole and Coram and whilst I was defensive at the end of the straight on the penultimate lap, I wasn’t on the final lap which allowed Tommy through. He beat me fair and square so hats off to him and although it’s very frustrating not to even finish on the podium after leading for so long, it was a good, fun race.”

Bennetts British Superbike Championship Standings

Superstock 1000 Qualifying

Championship leader Dan Linfoot claimed pole ahead of this weekend’s race as he beat Alex Olsen to the top spot by 0.219secs thanks to a hot lap of 1min 48.948secs.

Alastair Seeley, aboard the SYNETIQ BMW, once again was the only non-Honda in the top five to round out the front row, as Richard Kerr starts fourth and Billy McConnell fifth.

Superstock 1000 Combined Qualifying Results

Supersport / GP2 Sprint Race

Tom Booth-Amos banked maximum points after beating Rhys Irwin to the Sprint race win – as polesitter Luke Stapleford crashed on the penultimate lap.

With a comfortable lead, Stapleford made a tiny mistake on lap nine of 10 to crash out, losing his points lead as Booth-Amos came through and took the win.

Irwin, who had led for the first three laps before being passed by both Stapleford and then Booth-Amos, eventually took second, 2.282secs behind the winner.

Ben Currie was third as Jaimie van Sikkelerus was fourth with Luke Jones fifth.

Tom Toparis and countryman Seth Crump both carded DNF results.

In GP2, it was Joe Collier on the Kramer who took the class win, with Cameron Fraser second and Harvey Claridge third.

Supersport / GP2 Sprint Race Results

Supersport Points

GP2 Points

Supersport Cup Points

Junior Superstock Qualifying

Cameron Dawson ended Aaron Silvester’s run at the top as he stole pole by 0.136secs with a hot lap of 1min 54.677secs.

Silvester, who led both sessions on Friday, will start second, with Sam Laffins alongside. Fourth quickest and heading row two is Kam Dixon as Charlie Atkins rounds out the top five.

Junior Superstock Qualifying Results