BSB 2019 Cadwell Park Round-Up

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The Track

LENGTH: 2.2M 3.5KM

CORNERS: 11

LEFTHAND: 6

RIGHTHAND: 5

POLE POSITION: LEFT

BSB LAP RECORD: LEE JACKSON - 1:26.478 (2017)

Home round podium joy for Tom Neave and Honda

The eighth round of the Bennetts British Superbike Championship saw the Honda team celebrating once more, as Tom Neave took a well deserved third place at his and the teams’ home round at Cadwell Park, in the National Superstock 1000 Championship race, aboard the Honda CBR1000RR Fireblade SP2.

With just one practice session over the weekend due to wet weather conditions stopping play on Friday, yesterday’s qualifying session proved crucial. Within the leading group throughout, Neave finished fourth fastest to take his best qualifying of the 2019 season.

In the 12-lap race Neave looked confident from the moment the lights went out and maintained his starting position of fourth in the opening laps. The local lad pushed hard to keep in the front pack and when Andy Reid crashed out of third place, Neave slotted into podium contention. Keeping a chasing Chrissy Rouse at bay, he defended his position and crossed the line third, just 0.275 seconds shy of the second place spot, to take his first podium with Honda.

Meanwhile for the teams’ British Superbike contenders Xavi Forés and Andrew Irwin, it’s been a weekend of ups and downs. Spaniard Forés made his racing debut at the 2.2-mile Lincolnshire circuit, and although making good progress from first practice through to the final race, he struggled to find a good feeling aboard the Fireblade. Forés came home 14th in Race 1 and finished Race 2 in a strong ninth position, after starting from 13th. The results from the weekend see him eighth in the overall standings, just five points behind his Honda teammate in sixth place.

Irwin was showing good race pace throughout the weekend and with positive free practice times his Showdown fight was looking strong. Just missing out on the final stage of yesterday’s qualifying, he lined up on the grid for the opening race in ninth position. Getting a good launch off the line he was straight into seventh place, but a mistake at the Mountain cost him and he dropped to ninth, which despite his best efforts is where he took the chequered flag.

The second race unfortunately ended early for the 24-year old on the third lap, after an ambitious late brake into Park saw him lose the front of the Fireblade and unfortunately took championship rival Scott Redding with him. Irwin has received a penalty for the move and he will start from the back of the grid in Race 1 at the next round at Oulton Park. Irwin’s results from the weekend see him maintain sixth place in the all-important Showdown top six.

The team will now regroup and focus on the next round of the championship, which is a triple header event ahead of the Showdown taking place at Oulton Park on 6/7/8 September.

This weekend was always going to be difficult for me and it was important to find a good feeling with the Fireblade, and we just couldn't get it right this weekend, but you know this is racing and sometimes it goes this way. I improved a lot from our practice results in both races and ninth in the second race wasn't so bad. We leave Cadwell with some more points towards the Showdown and although we do have some work to do at the next round, we're not a million miles away. Lets see what happens at Oulton Park, last time wasn't so good for us, but we have made some big changes to the bike and hopefully we can have a good result.

It's been a long while coming this podium! My last podium was at Knockhill last year and it's a pretty sweet feeling to be able to do it with Honda at my home round. The cheer from the crowd was amazing when I stepped onto the podium, so it was nice to have the local support. Qualifying in fourth place made my life so much easier and starting the race I didn't have so many people around me, so I was calm and not flustered. Today's race was the most relaxed I have felt in a race all year - the Fireblade felt smooth and perfect! Hats off to Paul and my team for all their hard work and making the job right for me! I wanted the race to be the full race distance, but it was reduced to 12 laps, then we had the safety car so that took a few laps away. I feel that if we'd had some more laps I could have challenged for second place. I'd like to say thank you so much to the team, Honda, my sponsors, family and everyone for all their support, it's a great feeling being back on the podium and I hope to be there again at the next round!

I suppose this is the highs and lows of racing, you have good and bad weekends. Fortunately we had a good one last time out and this was the bad one. I knew this weekend wasn't going to be all singing and dancing, but we'll continue to fight and move on to Oulton. We're in such a better place with the Fireblade than we were last time there and I believe we can be strong. With the penalty I will be starting the first race from the back of the grid, so I will have some work to do, but we'll fight hard and not give up. I want to make the Showdown and I'm still in a position to do so, so I'm not throwing in the towel yet and it's onwards and upwards to the next round.

I'm so happy for Tom and the team for him to get his first podium aboard the Fireblade, in the back of our hearts and minds this would be the turning point for him and hope we can understand better how important qualifying is toward his race. We always knew with Xavi Cadwell would be difficult for his first time racing here, but I'm pleased with his progress throughout all sessions and the development we've had with the bike, which sadly doesn't reflect on the timesheets. Andrew had strong pace all weekend, although we didn't seem to capitalise on this during qualifying, but I think if he hadn't had the mistake in Race 1, he would have finished further up the leaderboard. Race 2 he only got three laps; it was an ambitious late brake which resulted in an unfortunate incident where he has been penalised, but we're keen to learn from our mistakes, draw a line under it and move on to continue our Showdown fight.