Defending Bennetts British Superbike champions VisionTrack Ducati continued where they left off at Oulton Park yesterday with Christian Iddon posting apair of second place finishes today to add to the one from yesterday whilst Josh Brookes added more solid points after the three opening races of theseason.

Tyneside-based Iddon led both of today’s 18-lap races for Paul Bird’s Lake District-based team only to be pipped on the last lap each time by rivalJason O’Halloran whereas reigning champion Brookes bounced back from yesterday’s disappointing tenth place with better performances today to recorda sixth and seventh place finish.

With grid positions for the opening 18-lap race determined by the lap times from yesterday’s race, it meant that Iddon started from the front row withBedfordshire-based Aussie Brookes back on the fourth row.

Iddon took the lead and battled with O’Halloran for the entire race distance but just as it looked as if he’d end his run of four successive secondplace finishes at his local track, his Australian rival cruelly denied him on the last corner to pinch the victory by just 0.103s.

Further back, Brookes made good progress through the field and was part of an eight-rider group battling for fourth place. Positions were changingall the time and although he moved into fifth with just two laps to go, he had to settle for seventh at the chequered flag.

The final race of a busy weekend saw Iddon and Brookes start from fourth and 11th respectively and it was an almost carbon copy of the earlier raceas Christian again led for almost the entire race distance only for O’Halloran to overhaul him on the final lap.

Brookes was embroiled in a similar battle for the positions slightly lower down the leaderboard, but he moved through the field well from the fourthrow and both his and the team’s efforts were rewarded with sixth for his best finish of the weekend.

The results from round one mean Iddon lies in second overall with 60 points with Brookes sitting in sixth on 25 points.



“I think I’m going to lobby Stuart Higgs to see if we can get extra points for the most laps led in a race. It’s hard to take when you lead for that long and get overtaken on the final lap and although three second place finishes are obviously a great start, three wins would have been better. Jason had something more than us in certain parts of the circuit though and he had plenty of opportunity to weigh things up by sitting behind me for so long. I was half expecting him to come by, especially in the last race but I felt confident leading, and we can take away a lot of positives from the weekend.”


“We’ve definitely made a step forward today especially in the last race although sixth place is a relatively small consolation. It’s important to always think about the positives though and irrespective of the position, I got a decent feeling with the bike again. I actually felt like I could be aggressive and attack into the cornersand by doing that, the confidence slowly returned. I got further up the field and scored more points, but I’ve created a bit of a challenge for myself and need to put in some hard work ahead of the next round.”

Johnny Mowatt, Team Co-ordinator:

“It’s been a remarkable start to the season for Christian and with three second place finishes he’s taken a good haul of points. He’s riding with great confidence and can go away from the weekend extremely proud of his achievements. Josh found small improvements throughout the day, particularly in the final race but it shows the importance of a good grid positionas it’s very difficult to bridge the gap to the leaders if you don’t get away with them. We’ll sit down and go through everything to find out where we can improve but it’s Knockhill next where we had two days of testing recently, so we have a good base setting to work from.”


Round two of the series takes place at Knockhill, Scotland on July 10-11.


Bennetts British Superbike Championship race two (18 laps)

1 Jason O’Halloran (McAMS Yamaha)
2 Christian Iddon (VisionTrack Ducati)
3 Peter Hickman (BMW)
4 Danny Buchan (BMW)
5 Bradley Ray (BMW)
6 Tarran Mackenzie (Yamaha)
7 Josh Brookes (VisionTrack Ducati)


Bennetts British Superbike Championship race two (18 laps)

1 Jason O’Halloran (Yamaha)
2 Christian Iddon (VisionTrack Ducati)
3 Tommy Bridewell (Ducati)
4 Tarran Mackenzie (Yamaha)
5 Peter Hickman (BMW)
6 Josh Brookes (VisionTrack Ducati)


Championship positions (after round one – three races)

1 O’Halloran 75pts
2 Iddon 60
3 Hickman 40
4 Mackenzie 34
5 Bridewell 32
6 Brookes 25

 
Pictures courtesy of Double Red: Christian Iddon (21) and Josh Brookes (1)