Honda’s Bridewell and Kennedy lead the British championships

Celebrating its 50th anniversary, Scotland’s only FIA approved circuit didn’t disappoint with exhilarating racing, scorchingly fast laps, hot sunshine, cold rain and some outstanding results for Team Honda Racing UK.

After scoring his 28th career pole position on Saturday, Tommy Bridewell took his CBR1000RR Fireblade SP to a Race 1 win and another Pole Position for Sunday’s Race 2. Starting the race only four points off the championship lead there was a lot at stake for the boundless Wiltshireman as Knockhill’s infamous weather did what it does and the rain fell hard.

With everything to lose Tommy headed the charge on the opening lap, but an understandably cautious race developed allowing riders through when necessary to eventually cross the finish-line in a solid third place, just 0.014s off second place. Teammate Andrew Irwin had an unlucky crash on lap one; an early victim of the treacherous conditions, whilst Dean Harrison again struggled to find the form he’s more than capable of. Harrison crossed the line in 17th place, an improvement however of two positions over Race 1.

Bad luck haunted Irwin and Harrison in Race 3, both not finishing the race yet both capable of mixing it with the best. Meanwhile Tommy locked himself into another ferocious battle towards the front, pushing his way up from an early fourth place to an eventual second place finish after a red-flagged 22 laps of the expected 30, just 0.635 off the lead. 

A delighted Tommy Bridewell now leads the championship by 11 points with seven rounds and 21 races to go. 

Bridewell said: “I couldn’t be happier to come away from this weekend with a first, a third and a second.

We came into this weekend 22 points down, so yeah I’m over the moon. Absolutely delighted. 

“The final race was cut a bit short and the bike was working good, but the conditions were changing lap by lap, it was drying out quite a lot, so it was tough. A really tough race. I just tried to ride clean and maintain the gap to the lead, but also maintain the gap that I had from the chasing pack. The Fireblade SP is really working well now and I feel really good and I’m looking forward to the rest of the season.”

Supersport superstar Jack Kennedy proved that what he can do in the dry, he can also do in the wet as Race 2 developed into almighty battle of patience, throttle control and outright bravery. After 19 minutes 49.624s of Race 2 the dauntless Dubliner crossed the line with another race win shooting him into a nine-point championship lead aboard the fantastic Honda CBR600RR. 

Kennedy said: “I don’t think we could have had a better weekend than we’ve had here at Knockhill for Round four of the British Supersport championship and we nearly topped every session. 

 We got our first pole of the year and we’ve come away with two wins in dry and wet conditions. The team have been faultless. We changed our strategy a little bit from what I normally do here on a 600 and it really paid off to ride a little bit more like the guys at the front are riding to make life hard for them like they make life hard for me and it really paid off. I didn’t think the strategy would work on the on the 600 in line four but it has worked really well, so credit to the team for giving me this set up. 

 The bike’s been faultless and I keep stating how many days the lads have been working for nearly two months straight, no days off and there was no beat missed anywhere so I can’t thank my team enough. Everybody knows this is a team sport. Although it’s an individual rider out there, without the tools and the team and the atmosphere and everything behind you, you are not going to get the results, so I have to give this weekend to the team because I will always ride to the best of my ability, but if I haven’t got the tools and the team, it’s not going to happen. So again, credit to the team big thanks to all my lads Scott, Tom, Ryan and Matt for everything. 

‘We look forward to starting in two weeks time when the lads are gonna be walking hard behind the scenes and we might have an even stronger bike for the next time, so I can’t wait.”Round five of the championship visits the Norfolk circuit of Snetterton, 14th – 16th July. 

Words and images by BSB Press Office