Tommy Bridewell's hopes of a good result at his local round were scuppered when he came away from round four of the 2011 MCE Insurance British Superbike Championship at Thruxton without adding to his points tally.
Following on from a pair of battling top ten placings in damp conditions at Croft two weeks ago, the 22-year-old from Etchilhampton near Devizes in Wiltshire was hoping for an improvement on the Tyco Honda after his superb podium placing in the opening round at Brands Hatch over Easter.
Bridewell, racing at Thruxton for the first time since 2007, spent practice trying to set up the machine and was disappointed to qualify in 18th position but with the rain clouds looming on race day, he was to leave empty handed.
Race one saw heavy rain start to fall and Tommy retired with a misted visor and in race two, he gamely battled against the conditions to claim 17th place at the end of the 15 lap race despite a high speed grass tracking moment at over 130mph.
The next round takes place at Knockhill in three weeks time with Tommy hoping to challenge higher up the leaderboard around the tight Scottish track.
Tommy Bridewell: "I never seem to have much luck at Thruxton and today has been no exception. We chased a set up during practice and I was hopeful of a good result but visibility was a problem what with a misted visor in race one and then it was hard to see with all the spray in the second race. I ended up on the grass at one point so decided just to bring the bike home rather than risking a crash. We are making progress and hopefully we can be challenging a lot further up the leaderboard at Knockhill. Well done also to my team mates Peter Hickman and Patric Muff on their podiums today, that's one each for all of us now so that's good for both the team, Tyco and the rest of our sponsors."
MCE Insurance British Superbike Championship race 1 (15 laps)1 Michael Laverty (Yamaha) 20m42.995s2 Michael Rutter (Ducati) +1.281s3 Shane Byrne (Honda) +1.333s4 John Hopkins (Suzuki) +1.923s5 Peter Hickman (Honda) +2.473s6 Dan Linfoot (Honda) +3.097s7 Sam Lowes (Kawasaki) +8.863s8 Chris Walker (Kawasaki) +10.948s9 Josh Brookes (Suzuki) +14.718s10 Ryuichi Kiyonari (Honda) +17.132sDNF Tommy Bridewell (Tyco Honda) 9 laps
MCE Insurance British Superbike Championship race 2 (15 laps)1 Shane Byrne (Honda) 20m07.763s2 Peter Hickman (Honda) +10.618s3 John Hopkins (Suzuki) +15.524s4 Tommy Hill (Yamaha) +16.980s5 Dan Linfoot (Honda) +17.128s6 Josh Brookes (Suzuki) +17.983s7 Michael Laverty (Yamaha) +22.967s8 Chris Walker (Kawasaki) +26.881s9 Jon Kirkham (Suzuki) +32.415s10 Martin Jessopp (Ducati) +34.864s17 Tommy Bridewell (Tyco Honda) +49.351s
Championship Positions (after 4 rounds)1 Shane Byrne 136pts2 John Hopkins 1213 Stuart Easton 894 Tommy Hill 705 Michael Laverty 696 Peter Hickman 6816 Tommy Bridewell 28
