BSB Brands Hatch Race 1 Results: Brookes wins, Redding recovers to 3rd

Josh Brookes kept his British Superbike Championship title hopes alive with an assertive victory in the first of three races at the Brands Hatch finale as Scott Redding recovered to third after starting down in ninth position.

Despite his comfortable 28-point lead over Brookes, Redding came into the race as the man under pressure after technical issues consigned him into the pack in ninth position, while his title rival began from pole position.

He made things more difficult for himself when a poor start demoted him to 12th position round the first bends – as Brookes scampered into a lead - but he was making his way back up the order to run seventh when the race was red flagged on lap seven due to an oil spill and crash involving James Ellison, Ryan Vickers and Joe Francis.

With the restarted race to be run from a standing start over 12 laps, Redding again didn’t get away well to run tenth initially but quickly made gains to sixth to latch himself onto a busy battle up to third position involving Christian Iddon, Danny Buchan and Jason O’Halloran.

However, Redding steadily picked his way through, grabbing third position to limit the damage to his reduced championship advantage over Brookes, who comfortably reeled off victory over Tommy Bridewell, the pair some eight seconds up the road.

As such, with two races remaining Redding’s lead is reduced to 19 points with a maximum of 50 points available. The result means a Paul Bird Motorsport rider is guaranteed to win the 2019 BSB title as Bridewell slipped out of mathematical contention. 

Iddon, Buchan and O’Halloran held their positions to finish fourth, fifth and sixth respectively, ahead of Peter Hickman, Honda duo Xavi Fores and Andrew Irwin with Taylor Mackenzie getting the better of his brother Tarran in tenth.

BSB Brands Hatch Race 1 Results