Bridewell Romps To Sixth At Snetterton

Quay Garage Honda rider Tommy Bridewell endured a weekend of mixed fortunes at Snetterton this weekend when he contested the latest three rounds of the MCE Insurance British Superbike Championship.

The 21-year-old from Etchilhampton near Devizes in Wiltshire looked to be in good form on Friday aboard the ex-Gregorio Lavilla Honda Fireblade and hopes were high of a good performance in the three races, the first of which was held over from the weather-affected meeting at Knockhill a couple of weeks ago.

However, during free practice on Saturday, a sudden rain shower caught out Bridewell and he crashed at The Bombhole meaning the Braunton, Devon-based team had a race against time to get the machine fixed in time for the Swan Roll for Pole. That they did, although a rear suspension problem hindered Tommy's progress and he only managed to progress to Q2.

In the first race of the weekend on Saturday, Tommy made up for a poor grid position and bad start to eventually climb the leaderboard and clinch a fine tenth place but better was to follow in race two on Sunday when he scrapped his way to sixth after a race long dice with a number of the factory-supported riders.

Sadly in the second race on Sunday, Bridewell was dicing for another top ten placing when an electrical fault sidelined the machine with just a few laps remaining meaning he didn't see the chequered flag.

As a result, Tommy holds onto 11th place in the series standings and still has an outside chance of making the all-important top six cut over the next two rounds, the next of which is at Brands Hatch on August 7/8th. Meanwhile, the week previous, Tommy and the team will be in action as a wild card entry at the British round of the World Superbike Championship at Silverstone.

Tommy Bridewell:  "You could say I've had a pretty mixed weekend what with a crash, a top six placing and a breakdown but I'm reasonably pleased with how it's gone. We always knew the bike would be down on top speed against some of the newer models and the last place you need a slow bike is at Snetterton but we did OK. It was my fault I crashed and gave the team a load of unnecessary work which affected our qualifying but to bring it home in a best result of sixth is fairly good all things considered. There's only so much we can do to the bike now but I'm confident that we can still keep plugging away and who knows; with a bit of luck we can get a bit further up that leaderboard. For now, though, we're off to Silverstone and we'll see how we get on against the World Championship riders and if I can scrape a point or two, I'll be delighted."

Ian Woollacott Team Manager:  "Tommy never fails to give less than 100% and despite his off on Saturday, we're once again delighted with his commitment and performance. We're disappointed that he didn't finish the final race and relieved it was no more than an electronic sensor as that was a brand new engine this weekend and we didn't need the cost of another rebuild, that's for sure. But to come away from one of the fastest circuits in the country with a sixth and tenth place shows how well he's riding and what a great job James and John Buckingham are doing on the bike and if Tommy can keep plugging away, we'll be more than happy."

MCE Insurance British Superbike Championship race 1 (18 laps)

1 Josh Brookes (Honda) 19m41.650s2 Ryuichi Kiyonari (Honda) +0.594s3 Tommy Hill (Suzuki) +4.475s 4 Michael Rutter (Ducati) +4.989s5 Alastair Seeley (Suzuki) +5.485s6 Michael Laverty (Suzuki) +5.889s7 James Ellison (Honda) +9.148s8 Simon Andrews (Kawasaki) +11.305s9 Gary Mason (Kawasaki) +14.364s10 Tommy Bridewell (Quay Garage Honda) +14.386s

MCE Insurance British Superbike Championship race 2 (22 laps)

1 Josh Brookes (Honda) 24m13.327s2 Tommy Hill (Suzuki) +1.472s3 Alastair Seeley (Suzuki) +2.740s4 James Ellison (Honda) +3.757s5 Michael Laverty (Suzuki) +4.152s6 Tommy Bridewell (Quay Garage Honda) +15.640s7 Chris Walker (Honda) +17.779s8 Stuart Easton (Honda) +18.417s9 Simon Andrews (Kawasaki) +18.860s10 John Laverty (Kawasaki) +19.131s

MCE Insurance British Superbike Championship race 3 (24 laps)

1 Ryuichi Kiyonari (Honda) 26m52.964s2 Tommy Hill (Suzuki) +0.591s3 Michael Laverty (Suzuki) +0.954s4 Michael Rutter (Ducati) +1.584s5 John Laverty (Kawasaki) +3.897s6 Simon Andrews (Kawasaki) +4.899s7 Chris Walker (Honda) +6.127s8 Andrew Pitt (Yamaha) +8.211s9 Gary Mason (Kawasaki) +8.349s10 Yukio Kagayama (Suzuki) +9.566sDNF Tommy Bridewell (Quay Garage Honda) 11 laps

Championship standings (after 7 rounds)

1 Hill 218pts2 Brookes 2163 Kiyonari 1934 Michael Laverty 1835 Rutter 1656 John Laverty 1297 Seeley 1288 Easton 1009 Walker 8810 Ellison 7011 Bridewell 66