More, from a press release issued by MotorSport Vision Racing:
Bridewell 0.1s off the fastest ever lap as 12 riders confirmed for Omologato Superpole
Tommy Bridewell upped the pace in the second Bennetts British Superbike Championship SUPERPICKS Free Practice session topping the times for Oxford Products Racing Ducati, just 0.173s adrift of the fastest ever lap of the Lincolnshire circuit.
Following the two combined sessions today, the top 12 riders progress directly into tomorrow’s Omologato Superpole Qualifying, but it was hard-fought with the top 17 riders covered by just 0.982s.
Bridewell set his pace-setting lap with 15-minutes of the session remaining, but tipped off at the bottom of the Mountain on the following lap. He was able to return to the eBay pitlane and complete the session, holding off Bradley Ray by 0.035s at the chequered flag.
Danny Buchan completed the top three on combined times, the SYNETIQ BMW rider holding off the Cheshire Mouldings FS-3 Kawasaki pairing of Lee Jackson and Rory Skinner who locked out the top five.
In incredibly close combined times, Andrew Irwin was sixth fastest, just 0.001s adrift of Skinner, with Leon Haslam in seventh just 0.003s behind the SYNETIQ BMW ahead of him.
Jason O’Halloran was the leading McAMS Yamaha rider in eighth place with Takumi Takahashi continuing to lead the Honda Racing UK charge in ninth place, qualifying for his first Omologato Superpole experience tomorrow.
Christian Iddon moved inside the top 12 in the closing stages for Buildbase Suzuki, with Ryan Vickers and Tarran Mackenzie completing the contenders already confirmed in tomorrow’s Omologato Superpole.
Peter Hickman was the first rider to miss out on the top 12 just ahead of Ryo Mizuno and Glenn Irwin. They will lead the charge of riders taking part in SUPERPICKS Qualifying tomorrow, with the top three from that session completing the 15 rider line up in the battle for pole position in the much-anticipated Omologato Superpole, which will decide the grid for the eBay Sprint race.
Bennetts British Superbike Championship, Cadwell Park, SUPERPICKS Free Practice combined times:
- Tommy Bridewell (Oxford Products Racing Ducati) 1m:25.989s
- Bradley Ray (Rich Energy OMG Racing Yamaha) +0.035s
- Danny Buchan (SYNETIQ BMW) +0.065s
- Lee Jackson (Cheshire Mouldings FS-3 Kawasaki) +0.235s
- Rory Skinner (Cheshire Mouldings FS-3 Kawasaki) +0.349s
- Andrew Irwin (SYNETIQ BMW) +0.350s
- Leon Haslam (VisionTrack Kawasaki) +0.353s
- Jason O’Halloran (McAMS Yamaha) +0.427s
- Takumi Takahashi (Honda Racing UK) +0.511s
- Christian Iddon (Buildbase Suzuki) +0.600s
- Ryan Vickers (FHO Racing BMW with Attis Sports) +0.610s
- Tarran Mackenzie (McAMS Yamaha) +0.643s
For more information on the Bennetts British Superbike Championship visit www.britishsuperbike.com
Tommy Bridewell
Oxford Products Racing Ducati
“Today’s been a good day, just standard to be honest! We’ve got new bits here and we’ve got a lot we’re trying and it all takes time, so yes we benefitted from that test last night.
“We’re struggling in all honesty more so with the electronics to get the bike to stop so we’re still searching for areas for that to improve. I’m probably over riding the bike a bit to make the time and I could just do with knocking that back a bit.
“We’re getting there! We’ve got a new fork internal from K-Tech, the new swinging arm, we’ve got bits and pieces that we’re testing, different electronic strategy, so it’s all fairly overwhelming as mad as it sounds, but we’re making it work.
“We’ve got plenty of time tonight to make a big step tomorrow, I don’t think the outright lap time will go much quicker, but I feel we can make the bike do low 26s with race pace.
“Obviously our goal is racing and that’s still the target, but we’re not far away. I’m not completely happy, on a scale of one to 10 I would probably say I’m about a six and a half-ish although to be quite honest I don’t know if I’ve ever been a 10!”
