Donington Disappointment For BeerMonster Ducati
The BeerMonster Ducati duo of Glenn Irwin and Tommy Bridewell had a race to forget at Donington Park this afternoon with the duo both finishing outside the points in the BikeSocial Sprint Race of the Bennetts British Superbike Championship.
With rain arriving as the bikes assembled on the grid, their choice of intermediate tyres worked against them, but with the majority of their main championship rivals not faring any better, they remain separated by half a point at the top of the championship standings and more than fifty points ahead of new third placed rider Leon Haslam.
After solid performances in the three practice sessions where both riders were placed inside the top ten, this afternoon’s eBay qualifying session saw Bridewell best of the two teammates as he posted the second quickest time for a front row start in the race with Irwin a further row back in sixth place.
However, the dry weather in qualifying gave way to a damp track in the actual race, which was cut from 12 laps to ten and meant tyre choice was something of a lottery especially as the threat of rain was never too far away.
The two BeerMonster Ducati riders both opted for intermediate tyres front and rear but by the time the race got underway, light rain had begun to fall so they, like many others, found themselves on the wrong Pirelli rubber. Both pitted to change tyres but rejoining a lap down, 23rd and 24th was the best they could manage at the finish.
The race was won by Yamaha’s Ryan Vickers, but nearest championship rival to the PBM riders, Kyle Ryde, could only manage 12th and it was second placed Haslam who benefitted the most in the conditions. He moved up to third in the championship standings but still lies 55.5 points adrift of leader Irwin going into tomorrow’s two races.
Glenn Irwin:
“We had an idea of what the weather forecast was going to do but the slight delay in the schedule meant things changed and that led to a variety of opinions on what tyres to go with. There wasn’t much time to decide, and I perhaps could have been more assertive in saying what I wanted rather than asking the question of the team, but it is what it is. It was a chaotic race which led to a strange result, but the championship position has barely changed at all. There’s still only half a point between Tommy and myself and we’ve a good gap to Leon and Kyle so no harm done.”
Tommy Bridewell:
“As strange as it seems, there’s nothing to be disappointed about today. These are the days you can’t win the championship, but you can certainly lose it especially if you were to fall off and get injured. After the sighting lap I felt sure the intermediates were the right tyre choice, but conditions were getting worse and by then it was too late to change. The rain caught us out but whilst I knew we weren’t going to score any points; I also knew lots of other riders would be in the same position and so it proved. We’re all in one piece and we’ve lost minimal points in the table, so we’ll go again tomorrow.”
John Mowatt, Team Co-Ordinator: “On paper, the results don’t look good at all, but these are the days when you need to consider the overall picture and the bottom line is that we’re still first and second in the championship with a healthy lead. That’s what matters most and if we can take the positives out of today, then that’s a good thing. Many of our rivals went for the same choice of intermediate tyres and it was just a chaotic race for a lot of people, so we’ll just write this one off. Our pace in the dry was strong, as seen in qualifying, so we’ll go again tomorrow and look to bag a big haul of points and hopefully extend our championship lead.”
Bennetts British Superbike Championship – BikeSocial Sprint race (10 laps)
1 Ryan Vickers (Yamaha)
2 Leon Haslam (BMW)
3 Luke Mossey (BMW)
4 Jack Kennedy (Yamaha)
5 Lee Jackson (Kawasaki)
6 Franco Bourne (Honda)
23 Glenn Irwin (BeerMonster Ducati)
24 Tommy Bridewell (BeerMonster Ducati)
Championship Standings
1 Irwin 360.5
2 Bridewell 360pts
3 Haslam 305
4 Ryde 304
5 Jackson 296.5
6 O’Halloran 276.5
Pictures courtesy of Double Red: Glenn Irwin (2) and Tommy Bridewell (46) at Donington Park.
