Josh Waters claimed his first ever British Superbike victory after mastering tricky conditions in the second race of the day at Brands Hatch. The race had to be restarted twice, the first stoppage following a horrendous crash for James Ellison, but Waters navigated his way through the chaos and a downpour to take his first win.
Ellison was quickest off the mark on the opening lap and charged past Shane Byrne as early as Druids but halfway around the second lap, it all went badly wrong. As he rounded Dingle Dell, the GBmoto rider strayed onto the grass and immediately lost control of his Kawasaki which cartwheeled dangerously across the track, miraculously missing the following riders. Ellison was thrown into the barriers but thankfully appeared to escape serious injury, sustaining a suspected broken hip.
At the restart, Byrne led away from his race one nemesis Ryuichi Kiyonari but more drama was to follow as Howie Mainwaring went down at Westfield thanks to fluids leaking from the rear of his bike. The race was neutralised by the safety car and within seconds of it resuming under green flags, the black clouds surrounding Brands Hatch finally opened and forced the red flags to return.
The third start took place in very different conditions with wet tyres a necessity. Byrne and Kiyonari led once again from Chris Walker’s sole remaining GBmoto Kawasaki but Richard Cooper, Josh Waters and Keith Farmer were the riders coping best with the wet track and all three were storming into contention.
Waters was in irresistible form and by Surtees on the fourth lap, the Australian had overtaken every rider that had stood in his way. Even with a clear track and no reference point ahead of him, Waters was comfortably the fastest rider on track and eased to victory while Cooper and Farmer completed the unlikeliest of podiums after sensational rides.
After an untimely DNF in race one, Tommy Bridewell took fourth to boost his chances of reaching the showdown with Kiyonari the man to suffer misfortune this time as his Buildbase BMW broke down. Jon Kirkham took sixth ahead of Dan Linfoot and Josh Brookes while Chris Walker recovered from an excursion at Surtees to bring his Kawasaki home in ninth.
