Christian Iddon heads into his home round of the Bennetts British Superbike Championship at Oulton Park determined to close the deficit to his McAMS Yamaha rivals as the Showdown gets underway this weekend (24/25/26 September).
The VisionTrack Ducati rider arrives at the opening round of the crucial Showdown stage holding third place in the overall standings, trailing Tarran Mackenzie by 15 points, with championship leader Jason O'Halloran holding a further 30 point advantage with a maximum of 225 available from the final nine races.
Iddon heads into the Showdown off the back of a podium finish at Silverstone last time out, and in the fight in the following two races of the Main Season.
“The first race at Silverstone definitely felt better finishing second! I know we got a little bit fortunate with that position as Tarran and Jason had a crash, but then I think we would have still had a good chance of the podium if we were coming into the last lap anyway,” said Iddon.
“It was good to be back on the podium, we have had the chance of a few podiums but they just haven’t gone our way for numerous reasons for a few rounds. It was nice to be back up there, but I was frustrated on Sunday because the final race I felt like we could have had a podium for sure. I got a bit caught up with Tommy and then lost the momentum and that allowed Danny into the party and then I got the wrong end of it really.
“I ended the weekend frustrated because I had the chance of a podium, which would have been mega considering I started the restart twelfth on the grid. Still, we showed good pace and it was a considerable improvement on Silverstone from the year previously, so you have to take the positives away from that, which I am doing and look forward to the Showdown.”
On the previous visit to Oulton Park, which opened the 2021 season, Iddon pushed O’Halloran in all three races for the win, taking a brace of second places and subsequently the VisionTrack Ducati rider remains confident ahead of this weekend.
“Oulton Park has been one of our strongest rounds this year with three second places,” added Iddon. “I really want to revisit the settings from when we were there last as we have since tried some different things and I think we will go back to basics at Oulton Park and what we know worked before. We don’t need much to refine what we had and I know I was strong there before. Everyone is going to be on the pace really quickly, given that we have been there already.
“It is really important to have a solid first round of the Showdown, but also given the points deficit it is also really important to try and stay ahead of Jason and Tarran as many times as possible, and that is really the goal.
“Personally, I am going all out to try and win as that is what we are here for. As always I am not going to do anything differently to what I ever do, but we know the bike goes well there as we have seen this year.
“The Showdown has bought us closer together again, but I am ruing some of the lost podiums we could have had this year. I really believe that we could have had a lot more; I was taken out a couple of times when I was in second place and crashed on my own accord out of second, and again out of what really should have been a win at Donington Park. That would have been a big swing in the Podium Points. It isn’t insurmountable that’s for sure, and I will be doing everything I can.”