Tommy Bridewell put in a controlling display in race one at Oulton Park to win his second-ever MCE British Superbike race, ahead of Milwaukee Yamaha’s Josh Brookes.
Bridewell took the lead on the first lap of the race and despite not being able to open a huge lead, was rarely troubled by the men behind him. The victory was the first for the Tyco team since making the switch from Suzuki to BMW power at the end of last season.
Reigning champion, Shane Byrne, finished on the final step of the podium after managing to keep his team-mate, Stuart Easton, at bay for the entire race.
Behind the two PBM Kawasaki riders was Ryuichi Kiyonari who, despite initialling setting a new-lap record midway through the race, was unable to keep up with the top four riders.
The form-man heading into Oulton Park was James Ellison, but he could only manage sixth position after a poor start from the second-row of the grid.
Ellison finished ahead of Honda Racing’s Jason O’Halloran (7th) and Michael Laverty (8th) on the second of the much improved Tyco BMW machines.
Howie Mainwaring-Smart (9th) and Richard Cooper (10th) rounded out the top ten finishers for race one.
It was Easton who had the best start, initially moving up into first place before going slightly wide and falling back down to fourth behind his team-mate.
The first lap was full of drama as Broc Parkes and Jack Kennedy crashed out at Hislop’s , before Be Wiser Kawasaki’s Danny Buchan suffered a huge hi-side going through Druids.
Back at the front, Bridewell had taken the lead away from Brookes and started to pull out a gap over the Australian.
Lap three saw the first of three new lap records, with Kiyonari’s lap-time of 1m35.251s beating the old lap record set by Brookes at last year’s meeting.
Over the next few laps Brookes would regain the lap record, firstly with a 1m35.188s and then with a 1m35.107s on lap nine as he closed down Bridewell at the front.
Despite the pressure being put on him from Brookes, Bridewell remained calm and smooth on his machine and rarely looked like making mistake.
The front two soon made a break from the PBM Kawasaki paring of Byrne and Easton, who were left to simply defend the final podium place between themselves.
Heading into the final lap of the race, Brookes looked closer than he had been throughout the entire race but was unable to put a move on Bridewell, who took the chequered flag for the first time in 2015.
Oulton Park Race 1 Result
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