Leon Haslam completed a hat trick of victories at Silverstone, holding off rookie Tarran Mackenzie on the final lap of the Bennetts British Superbike Championship race three ahead of the Showdown as Peter Hickman narrowly held on to the final Title Fighter position.

All eyes were on the riders battling for the final Showdown spot and at the start Jason O'Halloran fired himself into the lead of the race, which gave him a chance of making the cut for Honda Racing, holding off Haslam and Jake Dixon behind him initially.

There was high drama for the Smiths Racing BMW team as Peter Hickman encountered a technical problem on the sighting lap and was forced to start the race from pitlane.

The race was red flagged on the second lap though when Luke Mossey crashed out at Copse, he was later able to walk away from the incident, before the race was restarted shortly afterwards.

Again O’Halloran got the jump off the line ahead of Haslam and Australian rival Josh Brookes with Mackenzie also in the pack. Remarkably Christian Iddon was holding fourth on the Tyco BMW as he fought back from injury in a determined bid to make the Showdown.

At the front Brookes captured the lead on lap five which put O’Halloran back out of Showdown contention and Iddon back in the Showdown game as Hickman held a position outside the top ten.

As O’Halloran dropped back to fifth it dashed his top six hopes despite his ambition to still make the cut despite his mid-season injury, but Hickman was soon back in contention as he climbed inside the top ten and Iddon ran on at Brooklands on the eleventh lap.

Brookes was holding the lead from Haslam and Mackenzie until lap 19 when Haslam made his move; diving down the inside at Copse and the pair were inseparable!  

Haslam’s lead didn’t last long though as Mackenzie hit the front for McAMS Yamaha on lap 21 as Brookes dropped back to sixth. The fight for the win went down to the wire though as Mackenzie held the lead on the penultimate lap, but Haslam was back ahead at Brooklands.

The Championship leader held the position to the line to win race three, but only just from Mackenzie, with Dixon adding to his Podium Points in third as Glenn Irwin just missed out on a podium finish in fourth.

O’Halloran held onto fifth ahead of Brookes with Richard Cooper and Tommy Bridewell adding another top ten to their tally this weekend. Iddon meanwhile held on to tenth place to miss out by just five points on a Showdown position with Hickman still suffering with a problem which put him 19th but still the final rider in the standings top six.