Tommy Bridewell reclaims British Superbike title lead after Sprint race battle with Kyle Ryde but says 'hard work is later on'
Tommy Bridewell reclaimed the lead of the British Superbike Championship with one race left at Brands Hatch on Sunday after producing a sensational performance to win the Sprint race from title rival Kyle Ryde.
Northern Ireland’s Glenn Irwin, who started from the front row, made a poor start and struggled to recover in the 12-lap race, eventually finishing in 10th place.
The Hager PBM Ducati rider’s own hopes of winning the championship were thwarted when he crashed out of the opening race in the wet on Saturday.
In a compelling race on Sunday, Ryde and Honda Racing UK rider Bridewell went head-to-head at the front after passing Ryan Vickers (OMG Yamaha).
The pair swapped places numerous times as the large Brands Hatch crowd watched the drama unfold, but each time Ryde made a pass on Bridewell, the reigning champion hit back immediately to retake the lead.
Bridewell, who beat Irwin to the title last year by half-a-point, was then able to pull away from Ryde on the final few laps, posting the fastest lap on the penultimate lap as he set a scorching pace that his chief adversary was unable to match.
He won by 0.257s in the end from Ryde, who was 4.4s ahead of his OMG Yamaha team-mate Ryan Vickers in third.
Bridewell will now take a slender four-point lead into the final race of the 2024 season at Brands, which will be held over 20 laps (16:00 BST).
“The bike was working well and where we’re struggling is down the straight in truth, the Yamaha’s a bit stronger than us,” Bridewell said.
“Everywhere else I feel pretty strong but I know what to do, I know how to approach these situations. I’m a fair few years older than Kyle and he’s got plenty of years to hone his craft.
“He’s doing a phenomenal job, he’s riding so good, so mature, but I knew what I needed to do and credit to the Honda team, the bike was great.
“The hard work is later on but maybe the 20-lapper will maybe work in our favour because I didn’t feel much of a drop then, or any issue with the bike – it felt like I could carry on hammering those laps out for another eight laps.
“Let’s see what happens later on and just enjoy it.”
Runner-up Ryde said the title outcome would now be decided in a winner-takes-all shootout in the final race.
“There was a few places on the track where I was consistently quite a bit slower than Tommy, which was hindering me there,” he said.
“I’ll figure it out for this afternoon but that was a great race to be a part of, but absolutely gutted not to win the race because it would have made my life a bit easier this afternoon, but anyway it was a brilliant race by Tommy and there was probably 10 or 15 passes made over those 12 laps which is probably a record for a 12-lap race.
“We’re first and second on the grid for the next race so whoever wins will win the championship, so it couldn’t be set up any better.”
Saturday’s wet race winner Danny Kent was fourth on the McAMS Yamaha with the top six completed by Josh Brookes (FHO Racing BMW) and Andrew Irwin (Honda Racing UK).