Josh Brookes celebrated his first victory in 2020, becoming the fourth different race winner in the Bennetts British Superbike Championship, claiming the win in round five at Snetterton this afternoon for VisionTrack Ducati.
At the start Glenn Irwin launched off the pole position into the lead for Honda Racing with Brookes, Tommy Bridewell, Christian Iddon and Bradley Ray all at the sharp end when the race got underway.
Glenn Irwin had been holding position at the front of the pack, but on the second lap Danny Buchan tagged Bradley Ray’s rear tyre and crashed his Massingberd-Mundy Kawasaki at Agostinis. The contact left Ray forced to rejoin down the pack and the SYNETIQ BMW rider ended the race in tenth place.
Lee Jackson meanwhile was flying the flag for the Massingberd-Mundy Kawasaki team; he had worked his way into fourth place meanwhile at the front of the field Brookes had made a move on Glenn Irwin to snatch the lead.
Brookes was holding off a hard-charging Glenn Irwin with Bridewell and Jackson the leading quartet who were battling for the podium positions. The championship leader made a move on Brookes for the lead at Agostini but he couldn’t quite make it stick, and then a problem towards the end of the race meant Glenn Irwin had to settle for second and the valuable championship points.
Bridewell had been on the attack too but he finished the race in third place and Jackson completed his best result of the season in fourth place, with yesterday’s race winner Iddon claiming fifth place.
Kyle Ryde was able to bag sixth place for the Buildbase Suzuki team, ahead of the battling McAMS Yamahas, with Tarran Mackenzie having the edge over Jason O'Halloran, with Luke Mossey in ninth place on the lone Rich Energy OMG Racing BMW, after Héctor Barberá crashed out unhurt.
Andrew Irwin had been carving his way through the field after his back row start, but the Honda Racing rider was involved in an incident with Ryan Vickers on lap 13 at Murrays, which saw both riders crash out of the race.
The Race Direction have penalised Andrew Irwin with a drop of three grid positions for his next race start and enabled two of the three suspended penalty points that were imposed on 9 August 2020.
No intention of appeal has been lodged.
Bennetts British Superbike Championship, Snetterton, Round 5 result:
- Josh Brookes (VisionTrack Ducati)
- Glenn Irwin (Honda Racing) 0.490s
- Tommy Bridewell (Oxford Products Racing Ducati) +0.696s
- Lee Jackson (Massingberd-Mundy Kawasaki) +0.853s
- Christian Iddon (VisionTrack Ducati) +2.682s
- Kyle Ryde (Buildbase Suzuki) +2.966s
- Tarran Mackenzie (McAMS Yamaha) +3.889s
- Jason O'Halloran (McAMS Yamaha) +9.549s
- Luke Mossey (Rich Energy OMG Racing BMW) +11.845s
- Bradley Ray (SYNETIQ BMW) +19.310s
Bennetts British Superbike Championship standings after Round 5:
- Glenn Irwin (Honda Racing) 93
- Tommy Bridewell (Oxford Products Racing Ducati) 75
- Josh Brookes (VisionTrack Ducati) 71
- Christian Iddon (VisionTrack Ducati) 70
- Jason O'Halloran (McAMS Yamaha) 56
- Andrew Irwin (Honda Racing) 50
- Tarran Mackenzie (McAMS Yamaha) 46
- Lee Jackson (Massingberd-Mundy Kawasaki) 39
- Kyle Ryde (Buildbase Suzuki) 38
- Ryan Vickers (RAF Regular and Reserve Kawasaki) 27