Knockhill Sunday British Superbike recap, results, points

2023 British Superbike Championship
Round Four – Knockhill
Superbike Sunday

Images by David Yeomans Photography

Superbike Race Two

Kyle Ryde claimed his fourth win in the Bennetts British Superbike Championship after a determined performance in the second race of the weekend to launch himself to within four points of Tommy Bridewell who moved to the top of the standings with a strong second place.

Jason O’Halloran had initially taken the lead from the Omologato Pole Position ahead of Ryde, Ryan Vickers and Glenn Irwin.

The lead group became a train of five riders as Bridewell worked his way through the order after his start from ninth on the grid and Christian Iddon was also in contention.

O’Halloran was piling the pressure on Ryde for the lead, but after attempting a move at the Hairpin, the McAMS Yamaha rider went wide and then as the pack crossed the line to start lap 23, Irwin passed both of his Yamaha rivals to move into the lead.

Irwin was then leading the pack from Ryde, O’Halloran, Bridewell, Vickers and Iddon. However, it was a disaster for the BeerMonster Ducati rider when he crashed out of the lead at the Hairpin with three laps to go.

Ryde was then the race leader with Bridewell promoted to second after he had carved his way up the order with O’Halloran in third and that was how the podium lined up at the chequered flag.

Vickers missed out on the podium in fourth place with Iddon equalling his best result of the season in fifth place.

Lee Jackson was sixth as he held off Storm Stacey, who celebrated his best finish of the season so far ahead of Tom Neave, Josh Brookes and Leon Haslam.

Several riders crashed out of the race including Danny Kent, Charlie Nesbitt, Josh Owens and Liam Delves.

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Bridewell led the championship standings by four points from Ryde with Irwin dropping to third ahead of Brookes and Haslam ahead of third and final bout of the Knockhill weekend.

Superbike Race Two Results

Superbike Race Three

In race three, O’Halloran was again the race leader on the opening lap as he launched off the line ahead of Iddon and teammates Bridewell and Irwin.

Iddon wasted no time in trying to capture the lead and moved ahead of O’Halloran on the brakes into the Hairpin on the opening lap, but his McAMS Yamaha rival instantly fought back and regained the position before the start line.

It was heartbreak for O’Halloran though as he crashed his McAMS Yamaha out of the lead a lap later. Meanwhile Bridewell had moved into second and with the Australian out of contention, the BeerMonster Ducati rider was then leading the pack.

Ryde had been working his way up the order and he was second by the third lap ahead of Iddon and Irwin. Irwin though was determined to bounce back from his race two crash and he was into second by the tenth lap with a move on Ryde into turn one.

The leading group then became Bridewell, Irwin Ryde, Iddon and Vickers, but the BeerMonster Ducatis broke the pack in the closing stages. Irwin then grabbed the lead from Bridewell on lap 18 with another move on the brakes into turn one before holding him off until the chequered flag with the pair separated by 0.879s at the finish.

Iddon had been holding third place as he fought for his first podium finish of the season but he overshot the Hairpin with ten laps to go and had to re-join after an excursion through the gravel but was then in tenth. He was able to get the better of Dean Harrison in the closing stages but he had to settle for ninth place.

Vickers meanwhile had been shadowing his LAMI OMG Racing Yamaha teammate and he hit third with a move at the Hairpin on lap 20, before holding off the race two winner to claim his second podium finish of the season.

Lee Jackson was fifth as he battled with Leon Haslam ahead of Tom Neave who scored his season best result for Honda Racing UK after keeping Josh Brookes at bay on the leading FHO Racing BMW Motorrad.

Superbike Race Three Results

BSB Rider Quotes

Glenn Irwin

“It’s a shame what happened in today’s first race as I could have been coming away with a hat-trick but I’m happy with the two wins we had, and I really enjoyed the final race. I could see Tommy in the lead and knew when it was time to up the pace as whilst he was strong in some areas, I felt strong all around the circuit. He’s improved his braking into the Hairpin all weekend, but the BeerMonster Ducati was strong out of the Hairpin, and I was able to make my move along the straight and into the first corner. Two wins out of three means it’s been a pretty good weekend.”

Tommy Bridewell

“I’m over the moon with two seconds today especially as we were off the pace for the first day. I struggled a bit but credit to the team, we turned it around from qualifying onwards and I felt a lot better. It was a shame to see Glenn go down in the first race as it was again showing the strength of the team and the bike, but I knew he’d come out fighting in the third race. I got to the front and set a steady pace, trying to look after my tyre, but I knew Glenn would be there. He’s been riding with a bit more confidence than me, so I’ll take the two seconds especially as they’ve increased my championship lead.”

Jason O’Halloran

“Overall, it’s been a strong weekend with two podiums and a good pace. We worked hard over the weekend and made steps in the areas we needed to. The last race we got to the front and I knew I had to push but unfortunately bottomed out which lifted the front and I crashed. It’s such a tough championship now with so many fast bikes and riders so you have to take some risks to get the rewards and that’s what I tried today and sadly it didn’t pay off. Still, two podium finishes is really positive and I can’t wait to get to Snetterton.”

Josh Brookes

“It’s been a difficult weekend to comment on really, it’s not been the results we wanted. We stayed on and finished all the races apart from a slip off this morning in warm up, so in one way we’ve got points in all three races and were in the top-ten. But it’s also been a frustrating weekend as we’ve not been able to make progress and fight for the higher places. We’ve tried to remain positive, make changes, always fighting to improve even if it’s just one sector, or one area of the bike to improve – but it just doesn’t seem to come here at Knockhill. We’ll now regroup as a team after a busy period with BSB and road racing, and we can head to Snetterton where hopefully we can look forward to some better results.”

Peter Hickman

“It’s been a super tough weekend here at Knockhill, coming from probably the biggest circuit in the world to the smallest doesn’t help. I tried 110 per cent across the weekend, but for reasons I can’t even explain, I don’t know why, but we’ve just not had the pace right from the start. The team has worked so hard, we’ve turned the bike inside out and it’s not seemed to make any different to the lap times. We changed things again for the last race and it actually did make an improvement where we finished 12th, the change was something we hadn’t tried before, and it did help as we went forwards for the first time rather than backwards. This weekend we’ve not finished where we want to be, or where we should be with the M 1000 RR and it’s hard to keep the morale up, but you have to keep plugging away. It’s great for the team that Josh finished inside the top-ten! Thanks to everyone for all their hard work and we’ll come back stronger at Snetterton.”

British Superbike Championship Points