Snetterton - BSB Round 5
The Track
Circuit length: 2.99M / 4.811KM
Corners: 12
Lefthand: 5
Righthand: 7
BSB Lap Record : Tarran Mackenzie - Yamaha 1:47.079 (2022) 99.81mph
Saturday at Snetterton is wild, wet and windy
Saturday 6th July 2024
In wet and windy conditions that belied an early July scheduling in the calendar, Honda Racing UK rounded out a Saturday of mixed fortunes as Andrew Irwin secured a seventh and Dean Harrison equalled his season-best result in eleventh. But it was heartbreak for both Tommy Bridewell and Jack Kennedy as they crashed out of their respective races.
Track activity throughout the day was heavily disrupted by rain showers of varying intensities, making it challenging for all four of Honda’s riders to navigate both the stop-start nature of the day and indeed the slippery circuit conditions.
Tommy Bridewell and Andrew Irwin both delivered composed performances in qualifying to occupy the leading positions on row two whilst Dean Harrison qualified his Fireblade in seventeenth.
Jack Kennedy meanwhile too expertly balanced the risk and reward of qualifying in the wet to secure a fifth-place grid spot in Supersport.
In the sole Bennetts British Superbike race of the day, a rapidly drying track made tyre choice and setup a gamble for the entire field, as teams up and down the grid weighed up their options. All three Honda riders opted to fit wet fronts and an intermediate rear, assuming that the forecast would remain clear and a dry line would slowly appear. As the lights went out and with a wet track beneath them though, others who had opted for full wet tyres raced ahead and pulled out a large gap. At the time of the red flag on lap nine, Tommy was down in tenth, Andrew sixteenth and Dean was back in twenty-second.
The restart was then delayed as the heavens opened and the race distance was reduced. It was full wets for all and a five-lap dash for glory. All three riders made great starts in this second attempt at race one. There was drama for Bridewell though as contact with another rider early in lap one caused damage to his gear lever and ultimately caused his early race exit as he crashed out.
Andrew Irwin and Dean Harrison though were navigating the treacherous conditions expertly to solid point-scoring finishes of seventh and eleventh respectively. A strong start to the weekend in difficult conditions for both riders with Dean equalling his best finish of the year to date.
In another disrupted race due to the weather, Jack Kennedy delivered a sublime performance for all but the final lap of his Supersport showing. He put together a dominant performance from fifth on the grid, passing multiple riders to get through to the lead and then pull away from the field, only to suffer heartbreak at turn one on the final lap crashing out of the race.
Honda's Tommy Bridewell and Jack Kennedy lead the British Championships
Sunday 7th July 2024
Celebrating its 50th anniversary, Scotland’s only FIA approved circuit didn’t disappoint with exhilarating racing, scorchingly fast laps, hot sunshine, cold rain and some outstanding results for Team Honda Racing UK.
After scoring his 28th career pole position on Saturday, Tommy Bridewell took his CBR1000RR Fireblade SP to a Race 1 win and another Pole Position for Sunday’s Race 2. Starting the race only four points off the championship lead there was a lot at stake for the boundless Wiltshireman as Knockhill’s infamous weather did what it does and the rain fell hard.
With everything to lose Tommy headed the charge on the opening lap, but an understandably cautious race developed allowing riders through when necessary to eventually cross the finish-line in a solid third place, just 0.014 seconds off second place. Teammate Andrew Irwin had an unlucky crash on lap one; an early victim of the treacherous conditions, whilst Dean Harrison again struggled to find the form he’s more than capable of. Harrison crossed the line in 17th place, an improvement however of two positions over Race 1.
Bad luck haunted Irwin and Harrison in Race 3, both not finishing the race yet both capable of mixing it with the best. Meanwhile Tommy locked himself into another ferocious battle towards the front, pushing his way up from an early fourth place to an eventual second place finish after a red-flagged 22 laps of the expected 30, just 0.635 off the lead.
A delighted Tommy Bridewell now leads the championship by 11 points with seven rounds and 21 races to go.
Supersport superstar Jack Kennedy proved that what he can do in the dry, he can also do in the wet as Race 2 developed into almighty battle of patience, throttle control and outright bravery. After 19 minutes 49.624 seconds of Race 2 the dauntless Dubliner crossed the line with another race win shooting him into a nine point championship lead aboard the fantastic Honda CBR600RR.
#1 Tommy Bridewell
Honestly I couldn't be happier to come away from this weekend with a first, a third and a second.
We came into this weekend 22 points down, so yeah I’m over the moon. Absolutely delighted.
The final race was cut a bit short and the bike was working good, but the conditions were changing lap by lap, it was drying out quite a lot, so it was tough. A really tough race. I just tried to ride clean and maintain the gap to the lead, but also maintain the gap that I had from the chasing pack.
Credit to the CBR1000RR Fireblade SP. It’s really working well now and I feel really good and I’m looking forward to the rest of the season.
#18 Andrew Irwin
This weekend honestly you can look at negatives, or you can look at positives.
In the dry I qualified in sixth. The first race yesterday I was third. It probably took me a little bit to get going, but still we fought back. We went back to fourth, then back to second and finished third.
It was a good start this morning in Race 2. I was third when I crashed, but it was only in the fifth or sixth corner and I had quite a big crash.
The at the start of Race 3 I got going okay and I think I was running ninth, eighth or ninth. We had a bit of a problem which stopped us from progressing.
We have to look at the positives. I came from a big crash this morning and didn’t let it affect me. I think we were going forward in that race but that's the way it goes, the team have done a great job, thank you to them for rebuilding the bike and I look forward to a week off before we go testing next week.
I feel like I'm riding in a much better way and I just have to be patient and let it come.
#5 Dean Harrison
Honestly, I've had a really frustrating weekend all in all. The frustrating thing is the lads are good, the bike's good. I've been poor basically. This sounds like a poor excuse, but I felt off all weekend and I've just not got my head into any of it really. So, I look quite a bit lost, because the potential of the bike obviously speaks for itself.
So I'm going to put this one down to experience and start again next time.
#4 Jack Kennedy
I don't think we could have had a better weekend than we've had here at Knock Hill for Round four of the British Supersport championship and we nearly topped every session.
We got our first pole of the year and we've come away with two wins in dry and wet conditions. The team have been faultless. The Honda CBR600RR has been amazing at this Knockhill Circuit. We changed our strategy a little bit from what I normally do here on a 600 and it really paid off to ride a little bit more like the guys at the front are riding to make life hard for them like they make life hard for me and it really paid off. I didn't think the strategy would work on the on the 600 in line four but it has worked really well, so credit to the team for giving me this set up.
The bike’s been faultless and I keep stating how many days the lads have been working for nearly two months straight, no days off and there was no beat missed anywhere so I can't thank my team enough. Everybody knows this is a team sport. Although it's an individual rider out there, without the tools and the team and the atmosphere and everything behind you, you are not going to get the results, so I have to give this weekend to the team because I will always ride to the best of my ability, but if I haven't got the tools and the team, it's not going to happen. So again credit to the team big thanks to all my lads Scott, Tom, Ryan and Matt for everything. Thanks to them.
We look forward to starting in two weeks time when the lads are gonna be walking hard behind the scenes and we might have an even stronger bike for the next time, so I can't wait.
The Honda Racing UK team will be back in action in a fortnight's time at Brands Hatch for round six.
| 1 | Glenn Irwin (Hager PBM Ducati) | 177pts |
| 2 | Tommy Bridewell (Honda Racing UK) | 173pts |
| 3 | Christian Iddon (Oxford Products Racing Ducati) | 156pts |
| 4 | Kyle Ryde (OMG GRILLA Yamaha Racing) | 147pts |
| 5 | Danny Kent (McAMS Racing Yamaha) | 147pts |
| 6 | Jason O'Halloran (Completely Motorbikes Kawasaki) | 108pts |
| 7 | Leon Haslam (ROKiT Haslam Racing BMW Motorrad) | 96pts |
| 8 | Ryan Vickers (OMG GRILLA Yamaha Racing) | 92pts |
| 9 | Charlie Nesbitt (MasterMac Honda) | 85pts |
| 10 | Josh Brookes (FHO Racing BMW Motorrad) | 80pts |
| 1 | Ben Currie (Oxford Products Racing Ducati) | 197pts |
| 2 | Jack Kennedy (Honda Racing UK) | 187pts |
| 3 | Luke Stapleford (Macadam Triumph Racing) | 172pts |
| 4 | Harry Truelove (ASTRO-JJR Suzuki) | 122pts |
| 5 | Alastair Seeley (Macadam Triumph Racing) | 113pts |
| 6 | Eugene McManus (ROKiT Haslam Racing BMW Motorrad) | 94pts |
| 7 | Shane Richardson (ASTRO-JJR Suzuki) | 81pts |
| 8 | TJ Toms (R&R Racing Yamaha) | 60pts |
| 9 | Asher Durham (G&S Racing Kawasaki) | 46pts |
| 10 | Matt Truelove (Truelove Brothers Racing Suzuki) | 40pts |
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