FS3 Kawasaki‘s Danny Buchan has taken his second win of the season after beating Josh Brookes in the opening Bennetts British Superbike race at Cadwell Park.
Race one kicked off early Sunday afternoon in near-perfect conditions, after a short sharp shower, dampened the Mountain circuit just an hour before the race commenced.
Buildbase Suzuki‘s Bradley Ray was set to start from his first front-row position in 2019, but his opening race of the day ended prematurely after his Suzuki GSX-R1000 broke down on the warm-up lap after suffering a fuel pump issue.
From pole position, it was Josh Brookes who swept into the lead ahead of McAMS Yamaha‘s Jason O’Halloran and Danny Buchan. In the mid-pack, Josh Elliott was forced to take avoiding action across the grass at turn one after being forced wide by Gino Rea on the entry to Coppice.
As the pack headed up the hill and into Park curve, Danny Buchan dived up the inside of O’Halloran and started his pursuit on PBM Ducati rider Josh Brookes.
The leading duo had opened up a comfortable lead over O’Halloran who had Tommy Bridewell desperately looking for a way passed the Yamaha R1, and eventually made his way passed the Australian on the second lap.
After a promising start for Dan Linfoot on the TAG Yamaha, his race ended three laps in after a low side at Mansfield, crashing out of sixth position.
Once Bridewell had cleared O’Halloran, the Oxford Racing Ducati rider started his pursuit on the leading duo, setting the fastest lap of the race on lap seven. Soon the leading duo became three when Tommy Bridewell caught Brookes and Buchan as the leading two dropped the pace by a few tenths.
Meanwhile, a recovering Scott Redding managed to get the better of Peter Hickman at turn one, promoting the Gloucestershire rider into fifth position, behind Tyco BMW‘s Christian Iddon.
On lap eleven, Buchan made his move, with a neat pass up the inside of Brookes into the difficult downhill left-hander of Mansfield and immediately opened a gap over the two V4 R Ducati’s.
As we approached the closing stages of the opening race, the battle was still on for the lead after a mistake from Danny Buchan on the exit of the chicane on the run to the mountain, bunching the leading group back together, but just as he did once the Kawasaki rider hit the front, Buchan was able to re-open the gap at the front.
Christian Iddon was holding fourth up until a small mistake on the penultimate lap gifted Redding and Hickman fourth and fifth positions.
Danny Buchan held on to take his second win of the season ahead of Josh Brookes and Tommy Bridewell, whilst Redding took thirteen points for third, meaning his lead at the top of the standings was cut to thirteen points. Hickman came home in fifth ahead of Christian Iddon and Jason O’Halloran.
Glenn Irwin came home in eighth position ahead of younger brother Andrew Irwin who took another point haul in order to protect his position in the showdown six, Ryan Vickers completed the top ten.
Luke Stapleford came home ahead of Gino Rea, who took Bike Devil Seda Mv Agusta’s first points of the season, he was ahead of the injured Tarran Mackenzie, Xavi Fores and Dean Harrison took the final point.
After the opening race of the day, Redding maintained his lead in the championship, but his teammate Josh Brookes cut the advantaged to thirteen points, whilst Tommy Bridewell sits in third a further twenty-six points back.
Ahead of race two, the final two showdown positions were in danger, with Mackenzie, Honda Racing duo Andy Irwin, Fores, and Peter Hickman all within a race win’s gap.
Courtesy of the fastest lap set in race one, Tommy Bridewell will line up on pole for the second race as he aims for his and Oxford Racing Ducati’s first win of the season.
