Editorial Note: American Brandon Paasch, riding his Dynavolt Triumph Street Triple RS 765, qualified third in British Supersport. After turning the fastest lap time while racing for the lead in Race One, he crashed and suffered a broken right wrist, according to a post he made on social media. He will not participate in Race Two on Sunday.
Mackenzie aces race one with 0.095s covering the podium in Snetterton opener
Tarran Mackenzie celebrated his third victory of the Bennetts British Superbike Championship season, claiming Yamaha their first win at Snetterton since 2012, following an intense final lap in the opening BikeSocial Race 1. Just 0.866s covered an incredibly close top five after the 12-lap encounter.
At the start of the race, Glenn Irwin pulled an impressive move around the outside of Tarran Mackenzie to lead the pack out of Riches with Andrew Irwin holding third.
Christian Iddon crashed out of the action at Oggies on the opening lap unhurt, which now means he has lost two positions in the overall standings, dropping to fourth in the fight for the top eight.
At the front, Glenn Irwin was desperately trying to break the pack as Jason O’Halloran carved his way through into second place by lap four. A lap later though and Glenn Irwin crashed out at Oggies as the Honda Fireblade cartwheeled out of contention.
That left O’Halloran leading the pack ahead of his McAMS Yamaha teammate Mackenzie with Tommy Bridewell, Lee Jackson and Josh Brookes in the leading five positions.
On the eighth lap, Mackenzie made his move at Agostini to push his Australian rival back into second with Bridewell in close contention.
Brookes meanwhile was embroiled in a fierce battle with Jackson as the pair traded positions throughout the closing stages.
As the pack continued to close, Mackenzie was able to defend hard, but it was disappointment for O’Halloran as he got drafted to the chequered flag by Bridewell with just 0.026s separating them in second and third.
Brookes equalled his best result of the season in fourth, but was just 0.559s adrift of the win – the closest he has been this season on the VisionTrack Ducati, with Jackson completing the top five for FS-3 Racing Kawasaki.
Ryan Vickers held on to sixth place at his home round for the RAF Regular & Reserve Kawasaki team ahead of Peter Hickman as the pair broke away from Rory Skinner.
Bradley Ray and Danny Buchan completed the top ten with five race now remaining to decide the eight Title Fighters in the Showdown.
Bennetts British Superbike Championship, Snetterton, BikeSocial Race 1:
Tarran Mackenzie (McAMS Yamaha)
Tommy Bridewell (Oxford Products Racing Ducati) +0.069s
Jason O’Halloran (McAMS Yamaha) +0.095s
Josh Brookes (VisionTrack Ducati) +0.559s
Lee Jackson (FS-3 Racing Kawasaki) +0.866s
Ryan Vickers (RAF Regular & Reserve Kawasaki) +6.560s
Peter Hickman (FHO Racing BMW) +6.855s
Rory Skinner (FS-3 Racing Kawasaki) +7.832s
Bradley Ray (Rich Energy OMG Racing BMW) +9.696s
Danny Buchan (SYNETIQ BMW) +14.732s
Bennetts British Superbike Championship standings after BikeSocial Race 1:
Jason O’Halloran (McAMS Yamaha) 358
Tarran Mackenzie (McAMS Yamaha) 248
Tommy Bridewell (Oxford Products Racing Ducati) 225
Christian Iddon (VisionTrack Ducati) 223
Peter Hickman (FHO Racing BMW) 209
Danny Buchan (SYNETIQ BMW) 171
Glenn Irwin (Honda Racing) 154
Lee Jackson (FS-3 Racing Kawasaki) 144
For more information on the Bennetts British Superbike Championship visit www.britishsuperbike.com
Tarran Mackenzie – McAMS Yamaha
Race 1 winner
“I am definitely happy with that! I was happy following Glenn at the start with Jason behind, because I knew we had good pace in practice, but the tyre was wearing a lot.
“When Jason came by, we had a gap to fourth place, so I sat behind him. Then when Glenn crashed, I was happy following Jason, but when the gap started to come down I wanted to take the lead in case something happened.
“There are a lot of passing opportunities here and I didn’t want to get involved in that. I got to the front and rode my own race, I didn’t set an outstanding pace, I was just comfortable and managing the tyre.
“On the last lap I wanted to push harder and bridged maybe one or two bike lengths, which was enough for them not to be able to come back on me.
“I made a mistake on the last corner, running wide on the entry and then had a big wheelie on the exit. I shut my eyes and got to the line to take another win, another double McAMS Yamaha podium.
“It’ll be tricky starting on the third row here tomorrow, but I’m quite strong in some areas, so if we can do some passing on the first few laps and then try not to use too much tyre. I prefer the longer races, so we’ll do some homework tonight and come out swinging tomorrow.”
More, from a press release issued by Dynavolt Triumph:
Hard fought fourth for Smith as Paasch crashes out
4 September 2021|Latest News
The day began with great promise as both Dynavolt Triumph riders qualified on the front row of the grid for the 10-lap Quattro Group British Supersport Championship Sprint race with Kyle Smith in second and Brandon Paasch, his first front row start in third.
Smith got the hole-shot off the line and led for the majority of the laps, holding off attempts from Kennedy, Currie and eventual race winner Johnston. Despite some super clean moves in the corners Smith just lost out on the long, uber fast Snetterton straights, crossing the line in fourth position.
Kyle Smith: “Bit of a disappointment not finishing on the podium but we’ve had a good race battling up front, just got to work a bit harder, dial a few things out on the bike and hopefully make it a bit better and see if we can battle for the win tomorrow.”
Paasch got away well then dropped one place to fourth and was battling back with a flyer of a lap when he overbraked himself going into turn 5 and slid out of the race. Paasch has bruised his left arm and has a suspected fracture of his right wrist putting him out of the feature race tomorrow and the next round at Silverstone next week. Paasch set the fastest lap of the Sprint Race and so in a cruel twist would have started the feature race tomorrow from pole position.
Brandon Paasch: “Crashed on about lap five. Just had the fastest lap of the race and got pole position for tomorrow but it looks like I won’t be riding. Whole left side of my body is pretty banged up, bruised and swollen and the right wrist looks like it might be fractured. We’ve taken the necessary precautions to get it checked out and wait to make sure I don’t farther injure it but yeah, bummer.”
Dynavolt Triumph Team Manager Simon Buckmaster: “Fantastic race Kyle just lost out. He was right there fighting for the win. He tried to see if he could get Currie and that put him a bit wide at Coram and then he lost out to Jack and finished fourth. A great job by Kyle and the team and we will fight for the win again tomorrow. We are always working with MSVR and the FIM on the balancing rules and it looks like this might need some adjustment to make things equal which is everybody’s aim. Even so, what a great race. We will look at everything that we can improve as we always do and be back fighting tomorrow.”
“Brandon was right there in the fight, he dropped a little and gained back but then into turn 5 he closed really fast on Kennedy, then he had to run wide onto the dirty part of the track and he just lost the front and, what looked like a nothing sort of a crash, slid off onto the grass but he hit his arm and his wrist on the kerb. The arm is fine, that is just bruising but the wrist is a suspected scaphoid fracture. He will go to see a specialist to get him back on the bike as quickly as possible but the medical staff have said 100% he is out of the race tomorrow and next week at Silverstone.”
