Oxford Products Racing Ducati score three podium finishes at Brands

Ian ‘Hammy’ Darbyshire reports back from Brands Hatch, Round 6 of the Bennetts British Superbike Championship.

Hammy
Friday comes and its back to business. We were very relieved to see a clear weekend on Wednesday looking at the weather reports of mainly summer sun with the odd cloud cover.

Both Christian Iddon and Ben Currie came into the round knowing how big this one was and we were just as aware. Halfway point, the turning point, or the point you look back at come round 11 and say, ‘but what if!’

Ben started off our track action and we were happy to have a longer practice for the Supersport class. Both riders had solid days with Ben topping the time sheet and Iddon having a positive day with the strategy we approached.

It is very clear Supersport has become a three-four rider championship due to the disparity within the pack. Even though we topped the sheet this was not a sign of an easy weekend or even the race favourite. Jack is incredible strong with their bike getting better and better. And you can also never underestimate Luke’s class or speed!

Iddon’s championship on the other hand is still open and wide. Before this round we’ve had eight race winners, a total of twelve different podium finishers, ten different teams reaching the podium and five different manufacturers claiming the top spot. This just shows how close this season has been so far. The sessions were absolutely scorching with track temperate way over 40 degrees. Overall, we finished eighth combined and only 0.363 off P1.

Ben Currie
“After being combined first overall for Friday’s practises and then going and putting it on pole during qualifying, things were only looking up. And the ten-lap Sprint race on the Saturday was a proper colossal battle every lap of the way. Me and Jack pulled away from the rest of the field and it all came down to the last lap. I made a pass and unfortunately ran wide a couple of corners later and lost back the lead and couldn't regain it, missing out on the win by literally a thousandth of a second. Really unfortunate.” 

Christian Iddon
“Overall we’ve had a really good day. It’s strange because you could be ninth or tenth on the time sheets but still be less than a second off. Sticking to our plan and strategy is where we need to stay focused. Race pace is good, and we’ve had a good feeling from rolling out for the first time. I felt good during qualifying but just struggled to get the lap together and we ended up P9 for race 1 which is a long race of 20 laps. 

“Sat on the grid and it was hot, but not as hot as Friday, so I knew the race was going to be fast and hard. Lights go out and I get a good launch and fight straight to the first group sitting in fourth. We broke into group one pretty quick, and it was a pretty good battle between Glenn and Tommy which I was just working out. They were taking chunks out of each other, and I was faster in certain areas but not fast enough to make it count and I also didn’t want to get tangled up in that battling and put us on the back foot. I was in second at one point then Andrew caught the group out of nowhere and fourth was the result at the end of day one. I was kind of frustrated as I felt there was a better result there to be had but it just didn’t come together. On a positive note, I was happy with the feeling my bike gave me and I was riding well too.

Hammy
Even though Ben had a mega race and Christian gained a couple points on the championship we all wrapped up for the night on Saturday feeling a little hollow and obviously hungry for more. The team this year is different; we look at racing differently, we approach it differently, and we want it more than ever and it’s tough to not let the ‘ok’ results feel like a total loss. But the desire we have running through us now is infectious and it inspires me and Wilf to give everything for the team.

Sunday… the big dance! The night before the whole team spent the night together which doesn’t always happen due to hotels, caravans, motorhomes, and team living. It was awesome just to all sit, relax and just talk about life. Come Sunday morning this had clearly carried on through as everyone was really positive, and I could feel an air of confidence in everyone and their respective roles.

Ben Currie
“Sunday came around and I had an opportunity for redemption. We had a different game plan going into the race, which was to follow Jack and pressure him but unfortunately it wasn't to prevail as the same scenario as the previous race followed.

Jack tried to break us in the middle part of the race, but I hung onto him, managed to set the fastest lap of the race, and closed the eighth tenths of a gap that he had back in, and I made a pass on the last lap to take to lead.

Unfortunately, I made the similar mistake that I made in the first race, and I ran a little bit wide. He snuck up the inside of me, and this time I lost by half a bike length, four thousandths of a second. Being a carbon copy of Saturday's race was very unfortunate, and as you could expect I was a little bit miffed off.

But I'm now thoroughly looking forward to Thruxton and feel like it could be a very strong round for us. It was a round last year that we took a double victory at so let's look forward to that, especially as it’s the local round for the Oxford Products Racing Ducati team. And in the meantime, I have a test with the team at Cadwell Park in early August. I can’t wait to get going!” 

Christian Iddon
“Roll on to Sunday and the first race. I lost the rear on the first corner, and I just thought, jeez this weekend is bad. Just no luck. Red flags, hit twice by riders and this time basically I was down and had crashed. It just went and I don’t think I bedded the tyre in enough on the warmup lap as the revs dropped and it just went and just again the bike recovered it. If it had gone another two-three inches, then it would have been a big old high side and likely a trip to the nearest hospital!

Got back on it and again not for the first time this weekend I was dropped down the order but just got my head down and was determined. From there I just made moves, the bike allowed me to make moves. I felt so good. We keep changing a certain part of the bike and incrementally bit by bit the bike’s just got better and better and I arrived at a point where I could just make moves in places I don’t think I’ve ever made here on any bike.

The way the rules are our bike gets hurt because our bike isn’t fast where it used to be so making these moves felt insane. I made good ground and tried to relax as much as I could of the middle part of the race. I mean trying to relax while the current champion is hunting you down as I could see from my board isn’t easy, but I managed to remain relaxed and used my board perfectly. I just allowed the bike flow and save any tyre which isn’t easy banging out 25’s but it allowed me to without too much risk. As I saw the board hit zero from the rider behind and thought any change I have to go. I saw Kyle make the smallest mistake, just allowing the bike to wheelie just a touch more than he had any other lap coming onto the back straight, so I had to go even knowing he's supreme into that corner and knowing he’d likely try hit back anyway, but my bike made it stick. I was expecting someone to come back through and make a move as we have different weakness to the two bikes behind us, but it was nice to ride smooth and box it off. It was genuinely one of the most enjoyable races I’ve ever had. Wouldn’t have said that if I had finished fourth, it would have ended one of the worst…

–None of us had anything for Ryan. We’ve been racing for second this weekend, so we all need to improve, but credit where it’s due. But from our side we couldn’t have done more. I think result wise we could have had more but that circumstances were against this weekend, nothing me or the team could have done better. It just generates close lap times so I’m really, happy, specifically happy with how the bike’s allowing me to go fast, especially the last race where we were hitting 25’s for the whole race.

We lost a few points to the top of the championship which I’m not happy about as the gap to the top is all I care about, and I know the team do too. But it was also nice to beat Tommy in a one-on-one battle as obviously with Glenn’s misfortune this weekend he wasn’t able to race us as he normally would be, I’m genuinely happy to see him ok.

The next round will be interesting as everyone knows the Ducati struggles at Thruxton but I am genuinely excited because I’ve had a podium there before on a Ducati and I am sure Wilf and the boys can do their best to find that window that works, but we will see. Just a huge thanks to the team not stopping this weekend and always looking for the extra bit. We are really strong together at the moment and it feels good.”

 Photo Credit: Danny Easton