Donington Park: Rounds 13-14-15

It turned into a very mixed weekend, not only weather wise but results wise for the Oxford Products Racing team. Rounds 13, 14 and 15 all took place on the Sunday at Donington Park, Tommy Bridewell ended up 15th in race one, fifth in race two and an unfortunate DNF in the final race of the weekend.

The weather conditions on Friday were mixed, with a dry opening session and wet afternoon session. Tommy and the Oxford Product Ducati team made a switch of suspension manufacturer just after Oulton Park and used K-Tech this weekend for the first time at a race weekend. Therefore the team had to learn quickly the set-up on Friday in the mixed conditions.

Saturday was declared a washout and all track activity was cancelled so the three races were run on Sunday. The grid positions for the opening race were determined by the combined practice times, putting Tommy in sixth place for race one.

With the late morning race, the track was still very wet in places with a small drying line appearing at other parts of the circuit. They took a gamble with tyres and Tommy opted for the hard rear wet compound tyre, sadly it was the wrong decision and Tommy struggled throughout the race and was only able to salvage 15th place.

Due to this he was unable to put in a fast lap-time for the second race, this placed him in a low 19th place on the grid. The race was fully dry but cold, Tommy got an incredible start and he was soon pushing his way through the pack and quickly. He worked through the pack and secured a fantastic fifth place.

Luckily in the final race of the weekend he was able to start from a much better grid position in fourth place. He got a great start and took the wide line around the outside and slotted into third, he was soon through to second and chasing Josh Brookes down for the lead. Glenn Irwin came past for second but shortly after that Tommy was forced to retire into the pits with a problem on lap seven.

Tommy - “Obviously it was a very mixed weekend, but for me it was very positive. I know it’s the time of the year but we really could have done with some more dry track time to learn the new K-Tech suspension with the Ducati V4-R. We only had FP1 in which we were sixth in so that was a good start and then every other session was wet.

Race one was very patchy but we decided to go with the harder rear tyre and for some reason the wheel spin from start to finish was unreal, it was a real shame as we had a good opportunity for a strong race.

Race two was dry so it was going into the unknown, starting from 19th was the hardest bit. The bike felt good, not great but I felt positive, I was more than happy with fifth.

In the last race we made some good changes and the bike was fantastic and I felt great on it. Sadly we had a mechanical that caused me to DNF the race. I’m taking the positives, I felt really good on the bike, really strong. I could see Josh struggling with chatter and fortunately I wasn’t in that position this weekend. Onwards and upwards to Brands Hatch and the final race of the year.”