Kennedy extends British Supersport points lead

Words and images courtesy Honda Racing

After a defiant ride to second place, and podium number fourteen of the season, Jack Kennedy increases his points advantage in British Supersport. 

In weather befitting the late September running of round ten of the Bennetts British Superbike championship, Honda Racing UK experienced contrasting fortunes from the two championships in which it competes. 

In the first BSB race of the day, the twelve lap sprint, Tommy Bridewell fought hard from pole position in a race-long duel with championship rivals Kyle Ryde and Glenn Irwin to secure his twelfth second-place finish of the season so far. Team mate Andrew Irwin meanwhile raced to a solid sixth-place finish, backing up his return to front running pace and one of only a handful of riders to lap in the mid twenty seven bracket. 

The second superbike feature lap race of the weekend though was a frustrating affair for Bridewell as he failed to replicate his podium performance earlier in the day and had to settle for fifth at the flag. Andrew Irwin followed just behind to make it a brace of sixth-place finishes. Whilst finishing fifth enabled Tommy to score more valuable championship points in his quest to defend his title, he relinquished the series lead to rival Ryde and now heads to Brands Hatch for the finale as the hunter rather than the hunted. 

Bridewell said: It’s still not easy I must be honest, when I am riding on my own without coming under attack I can do the lap time and I know that my pace is good. There is just a couple of areas that we need to work on so that I can be competitive where I need to be competitive. I am happy, the team are doing a great job we just need to be clever and to be aggressive when we need to be and ride as hard as I can. In that first race, we gained some points on Kyle but lost some points to Glenn. I’ll take it at the moment. Then in race three we just didn’t have the pace to go with the Yamahas. It’s frustrating for sure but it could have been much worse. We’ve lost the championship lead but now all the pressure is on Kyle. We go to Brands with it all to play for. 

But it was in supersport that the team celebrated the spoils of racing as once again Jack Kennedy displayed his sensational talent as he powered his CBR600RR to the podium once more in a hard-fought race against the larger capacity machines of his championship rivals. Sixteen laps of nail-biting racing resulted in a superb second-place finish for Jack and another top-ten finish for teammate Dean Harrison in eighth. Critically though for Jack’s championship challenge, he finished ahead of his nearest rival Ben Currie. As such, he enters the final round with a points advantage of 21 points.  

Kennedy said: “It was a really good race today, I knew I really had to push the Honda to stay on the pace of Stapleford and Currie, particularly as we were losing time in places and having to push even harder in other areas to make up the time again. We managed to do it though, and managed to be in a position to try and push for the win towards the end. The second to last lap was my quickest lap which I am really happy with. Luke defended really well into the Melbourne Loop in the final lap which made it impossible to have a go for the win because he is so much stronger out of the final corner and the run to the line. I knew that I had to take second and take points out of Ben in the championship which we achieved. I don’t think the weekend could have gone any better, we leave the weekend 21 points clear and I am very happy with the job that Honda and myself are doing. I can’t wait for the last round, even though I don’t want the season to be over!”

All that remains for Honda Racing UK is the season finale at Brands Hatch, Kent, October 11-13.