Bridewell battles to sixth at Donnington Park
Bennetts Suzuki ' s Tommy Bridewell battled to a hard-earned sixth place in race two at Donington Park and round 10 of the MCE British Superbike Championship , after recovering from a DNF in race one . Bridewell , who was still feeling the after-effects of his high-speed crash at Oulton Park and struggling with fitness throughout the weekend at Donington , saw his first race curtailed with a mechanical issue , which forced him to retire early . With the problem rectified for race two , Bridewell battled valiantly to overcome the pain and fight his way to a sixth placed finish , after a race-long dice with Richard Cooper . Tommy Bridewell , “ It was a difficult weekend . The problem in the first race was no one ' s fault . This isn ' t a standard road bike , it ' s a race bike and everyone ' s trying to get everything out of the engines , and sometimes this happens . No one ' s to blame , it ' s just one of those things . I found it a bit tough on the bike , physically , but no excuses . We had a good pace this weekend , but we just couldn ' t match the pace at the
The Bennetts Suzuki team and Tommy Bridewell ended the 2016 MCE British Superbike championship season with a topfive finish at the Brands Hatch triple-header , in an eventful and unpredictable weekend . Bridewell qualified on pole position for the first of the weekend ’ s races , which started in dry conditions but was redflagged early on with the team battling for the race lead . Restarted twice , eventually in wet conditions , the race ended with Bridewell taking the chequered flag in fifth place . Sunday ’ s action got underway in mixed conditions and on a drying track . After a tricky opening half of the race that saw Bridewell drop to the latter point-scoring positions , he recovered as the race went on , coming back through the pack to finish in eighth place . The final race of the 2016 British Superbike season was again not without drama , as the first attempt to run the season finale was red-flagged . Track contamination at Hawthorn delayed the restart , which eventually got underway as a 10- lap sprint race , but with a ‘ no overtaking zone ’ at the end of the back straight onto the GP section very front . I ' m happy with the feeling from the bike , so we ' ll go again at Assen , which is a circuit that should suit us .” Team Owner , Martin Halsall , “ We ' ve not had a bad weekend , but we ' re still not quite getting the luck . Tommy ' s put a brave face on all weekend , but he ' s hurting from his crash at the last round . His pace was good . We started a little slowly but made good progress . Unfortunately we had an issue in race one and it cost us a finish , and also meant Tommy didn ' t set a good lap time for a better grid spot in race two . The team worked hard between races to get the bike sorted , and Tommy dug deep to go and get a solid result , and we ' re proud of his efforts .”
Race One Result
: 1 . Shane Byrne , 2 . Leon Haslam , 3 . Jason O ' Halloran , 4 . James Ellison , 5 . Peter Hickman Race Two Result: 1 . Shane Byrne , 2 . Dan Linfoot , 3 . Christian Iddon , 4 . Peter Hickman , 5 . Richard Cooper , 6 .
Tommy Bridewell
Assen proves challenging
The Bennetts Suzuki team and Tommy Bridewell are looking to put the weekend at Assen behind them and focus on ending the season on a high at Brands Hatch , after a difficult three days in the Netherlands . An unfortunate string of bad luck cost the team valuable track time at the 11th round of the MCE British Superbike championship , which included a crash and an oil leak . Already playing catchup , issues with finding the right setup for the team ' s GSX-R1000 around the fast Assen circuit also meant Bridewell was fighting an uphill battle in the two races , coming away with 17th and 16th placed finishes and no championship points . Tommy Bridewell , “ It ' s been a really difficult and disappointing weekend for us . We were up against it already with the lack of track time , but we struggled to get the bike working right to be able to have two better races . The bike felt good when I first jumped on it in FP1 , and we had a good base , but when it came to improving so we could be competitive in the races we just went in the wrong direction and ended up chasing our tails a little bit . If we ' d had more time to be able to get on top of it , I think we ' d have been able to have had a lot better weekend .
Bennetts Suzuki sign off with pole and top-five finish at Brands
of the Brands Hatch circuit . Bridewell made a strong start , but a mistake at Druids saw him run wide , costing him lots of time and also track position . Showing the fighting spirit he ' s shown all season , he put his head down , and even with the race running over a shortened distance , he recovered to take another eighth place . Tommy Bridewell , “ That was an okay way to end the year . The weather ' s really played havoc with us this weekend because we improved the bike and were fast in the dry and fast in the wet , but I need to improve my performance when it ' s the inbetween . As I got into it in both of today ' s races our lap times were up there with the fastest out there , and we could catch people , pass them , and gap them , but by coming from so far behind there was only so much I could do . The results this weekend haven ' t been what we were hoping for , but we ' ve had a good year . We ' ve had some bad luck , but through the second half of the season especially , we ' ve been fast . Our biggest area of weakness this year was the initial punch out of corners . I think I ' ve only ever really been passed in a straight line this year , because on the brakes and in the corners we ' ve been so strong and the bike ' s been brilliant . But I ' ve had a great year with the team , I ' ve had a lot of fun with everyone and really enjoyed my racing .” Team owner , Martin Halsall summed up the season , saying , “ This weekend ’ s been a bit up and down , not too unlike our season to be fair . It can sometimes take a bit of time to get going with new riders in a team , but after a little bit of a slow start , we ’ ve been a consistent runner at the sharp end of races in the second half of the season . Some bad luck has also cost us , and certainly cost us a place in the Showdown this year , but on the whole , if you look at the form guide over the second half of the year , Tommy has been one of the fastest riders out there , all on the outgoing GSX-R1000 . We were confident going into this
In race two I felt relatively comfortable , but to be honest that ' s how we ' d liked to have felt after FP1 or in FP2 . We just struggled with front-end feeling and it meant I couldn ' t push as I ' d like or as I needed to to be fast . But it ' s one of those weekends . We ' d had a good run coming into this weekend and sometimes you get weekends like this . We know that both the team and I are better than those results , so now I ' m looking forward to Brands , where we have a good setting , to end the season strongly .” Team owner , Martin Halsall , “ I ' m disappointed with our results this weekend , and everyone in the team feels a little deflated . We ' ve been really strong coming into this round , and for a multitude of reasons - some we couldn ' t control and some we could - it ' s not gone how we ' d hoped . Even on a bad day , coming away without any championship points is not what we expect . We know that , as a team , we ' re capable of a lot better than this weekend has shown . The aim now is to get ready for Brands , a circuit we ' ve gone well at this season , and push to end our season on a high with three good results and , hopefully , some more podiums .”
Race One Result : 1 . Leon Haslam , 2 . Shane Byrne , 3 . James Ellison , 4 . Dan Linfoot , 5 . Jason O ' Halloran , 17 . Tommy Bridewell.
Race Two Result :
1 . Leon Haslam , 2 . Shane Byrne , 3 . Jason O ' Halloran 4 . Dan Linfoot , 5 . Luke Mossey , 16 . Tommy Bridewell.
weekend , and it was brilliant to get pole in qualifying . Come the races all three took place in some fairly iffy conditions , ranging from treacherous on Saturday to the inbetween stuff we ’ ve had today , and we ’ ve seen what it can do to the field , with lots of regular front-runners struggling at various points , so to get fifth and a pair of eighths isn ’ t bad . We were hoping for more , but the weather can make it a bit of a lottery , so we ’ re happy to have a solid end to the year . Now I will go away and start preparations for 2017 . I have a lot to consider and a lot of work to do to make sure we have a team structure and package in place for next year to make sure we can build on our performances this year and push on to fight for the Showdown and hopefully the championship in the future .”
Race One Result
: 1 . Peter Hickman , 2 . Christian Iddon , 3 . Glenn Irwin , 4 . Dan Linfoot , 5 . Tommy Bridewell. Race Two Result
: 1 . James Ellison , 2 . John Hopkins , 3 . Peter Hickman , 4 . Dan Linfoot , 5 . Leon Haslam , 8 . Tommy Bridewell. Race Three Result
: 1 . James Ellison , 2 . John Hopkins , 3 . Shane Byrne , 4 . Leon Haslam , 5 . Christian Iddon , 8 . Tommy Bridewell.
Championship Result: 1 . Shane Byrne , 2 . Leon Haslam , 3 . James Ellison , 11 . Tommy Bridewell.
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