Brookes fends off Bridewell for first Ducati win

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Josh Brookes converted pole position into a lights-to-flag victory in race one of Bennetts British Superbike Championship action at Oulton Park, leading home Panigale V4 R counterpart Tommy Bridewell in a Ducati 1-2.

The dominant force in the dry throughout the weekend, Be Wiser Ducati’s Brookes came into the race as the rider to beat but while he was never headed from light-to-flag he was still made to work hard for victory as Bridewell put up a staunch fight.

Riding the customer Oxford Racing variant of the new Ducati V4, Bridewell consolidated his front row start to run second behind Brookes before keeping pace with the Australian as they put distance between themselves and the competition.

Nevertheless, Brookes maintained control to the flag and take the spoils, even insisting after the race that he’d been unaware Bridewell was that close as he couldn’t understand his pit-board.

A first BSB win for the Ducati V4 in only its second BSB event, the maximum 25 points haul for Brookes goes a long way to atoning for his failure to score during the Silverstone opener.

Behind Bridewell, Danny Buchan put in a charging ride from sixth on the grid to third position at the chequered for his second podium result of the season, the FS-3 Kawasaki man as quick as the leaders but left with too much to do by the time he’d ascended into the top three.

McAMS Yamaha’s Jason O’Halloran picked up his first points of the season in fourth place, while Scott Redding marked his Oulton Park race debut with a feisty ride to fifth position after coming out top in a race-long tussle with Peter Hickman on the Smiths BMW.

Keith Farmer flew the flag for Tyco BMW in seventh position after team-mate Christian Iddon retired with technical issues having run as high as fourth during the early stages of the race.

Running 17that the end of the opening lap after running wide at Island, Tarran Mackenzie put in a sterling fightback to eighth place to retain his championship lead, the McAMS Yamaha rider getting the better of the otherwise impressive on Ryan Vickers, who notched up his maiden BSB top ten result in ninth.

A race winner at Silverstone, Josh Elliott could only manage 10thon the OMG Suzuki as the best-placed GSX-R1000 representative ahead of leading Honda Racing rider Andrew Irwin. Making the move from roads to short track this season, Dean Harrison demonstrated his potential with an eye-catching run to 12th, ahead of two seasoned BSB race winners in Dan Linfoot and Bradley Ray.

Similarly, 15thplace David Allingham secured the final point at the expense of Xavi Fores, Sylvain Barrier and Claudio Corti, riders with impressive international credentials between them.

Beyond Iddon, Glenn Irwin’s disappointing start to the year with Quattro Plant Kawasaki continued with a DNF, while Luke Mossey also retired with exhaust problems.

With the fastest lap in race one falling to Bridewell, he will start race two from pole position from Brookes, O’Halloran, Buchan and Iddon.