Christian Iddon pushed through the pain barrier at Brands Hatch for the second round of the MCE British Superbike Championship, after breaking his leg on the opening lap of the first race.

The Bennetts Suzuki rider, who made a strong start from his third-row grid spot, suffered a nasty high-side at ‘Graham Hill’ on the first lap of the opening race. Coming down on the track, Iddon was clipped by the WD40 Kawasaki of Jack Kennedy which resulted in a broken fibula in his right leg. However, after pleasing the medical staff in the compulsory fitness tests, he was passed fit to race and battled to a 12th-place finish in race two.

Said Iddon:

Not the race-day we wanted obviously. Yesterday we were really happy and did an amazing lap time. We made some tweaks in warm up and I was really happy but then on the first lap went and spat myself off. I was pretty much upright and so far out the corner I crashed on 97% throttle, so not really sure what happened. I knew as soon as I was out the seat I was in trouble, not from my crash; but from what was happening behind and I could see Jack [Kennedy] doing everything to stop. It's a pretty clean break and I was passed fit to race, but on the sighting lap I didn't think I'd be able to. We lowered the foot rest and added some seat foam as I couldn't get my leg up. I was a bit wonky but knew on the warm-up lap I could race. I did my best to get some points and keep us in the hunt for the Showdown. We came strong towards the end of the race and I could make some passes, so not bad considering." 

Josh Waters continued to make progress with the set-up of his Yoshimura-powered Bennetts Suzuki GSX-R1000 throughout the course of the weekend. After qualifying 16th, Waters found himself in a seven-rider fight for 10th place in the opening race, but after 33 laps of the Brands Hatch Indy circuit, came across the line in 15th. He followed it up with a 16th in race two after another hard-fought battle, with not much to choose between lap-times.

Said Waters:

"It's been another difficult weekend, made even harder around here with everyone's lap-times so close. We're still struggling with corner entry but for the last race we changed the bike quite a bit and it felt better again, despite the result not showing it. We've moved in the right direction and even though it's not progressing as fast as we'd like, we're moving forward and we have some ideas to take to the test at Oulton next week." 

Team Manager Jack Valentine said:

"We started on a real positive note this weekend, especially on Christian's side of the garage. He was very strong in qualifying with a really quick lap-time, and we were looking forward to the race as we knew he had the pace and could lap as quick as anyone out there. The performance of the Bennetts Suzuki GSX-R1000 is up there with the best of them. He made a decent start but it was just one of those crazy accidents. He was clipped by another rider and it resulted in a broken leg. But because it was a clean break he could apply weight and please the medical staff, even though he was in pain, but riding was a little more difficult and it was touch-and-go on the sighting lap. But some quick thinking from the team gave him a little more movement and he did all that anyone could have asked of him and more by getting into 12th place. He was in agony afterwards, but I think when we see a fully-fit Christian Iddon we'll see some really strong results from him. The Suzuki GSX-R1000 is without a doubt capable of winning races." 

"There's still lots to do on Josh's side to get him confident to push the bike harder, but once he's capable of doing that, everyone knows what results he's able to achieve. From a lap-time point of view he's moved forward from his previous bests, but with the competition out there it's not enough, so we'll work at Oulton Park to improve that."

Race One Result: 1. James Ellison 2. Shane Byrne 3. Josh Brookes 4. Ryuichi Kiyonari 5. Jason O’Halloran. 15. Josh Waters (Bennetts Suzuki). DNF. Christian Iddon (Bennetts Suzuki).

Race Two Result:
1. James Ellison 2. Shane Byrne 3. Josh Brookes 4. Ryuichi Kiyonari 5. Stuart Easton 12. Christian Iddon (Bennetts Suzuki). 16. Josh Waters (Bennetts Suzuki).