Triple podium for Tommy at Snetterton

It was an exceptionally good weekend for the Oxford Products Ducati team at the Snetterton-300 circuit.

Tommy Bridewell gained two brilliant third places and went one better in the final race of the weekend to secure second place. He is currently second place in the Championship standings as we leave to Norfolk circuit.

It has been no secret that the Ducati are struggling with the new tyre compounds, which in turn is causing the bike to have serious chatter problems. Despite this, Tommy and the Oxford Products Ducati team worked tirelessly all weekend to find a comfortable set-up. Qualifying was tricky and Tommy could only secure 11th place on the grid for the opening race on Saturday.

Tommy got a good start and was eighth after the opening lap; the safety car was then deployed to clear up an accident, bunching all the riders together. Tommy took advantage once the car came in and moved through to sixth place and slowly working his way through the competitive field. He was soon making some strong passes and was up to third and hunting down the leaders, bridging the gap on every lap. With not enough laps left in the race Tommy had to take a strong third place.

He was elevated to the front row for the second race of the weekend and was eager to take advantage of that. He held his position of third place from start to finish and was sitting in second place in the Championship standings after race two.

Back to the second row for the final race of the weekend and Tommy started from fourth place. He got a great start and moved through to third place after the opening lap. It was a fraught race and about eight riders were able to run the pace at the front. They were swapping and changing each lap and at one point Tommy dropped back to fifth. He had to get his head down and work hard to make up positions. He took advantage of Brookes and Iddon running wide and briefly led the race. Tommy was locked in a battle with Iddon, Brookes and Lee Jackson and a final corner manoeuvre on Iddon saw him move through to second as the chequered flag came out.

Tommy Bridewell: “It was a tricky one this weekend, it was difficult. We struggled with the bike; we had a few issues that we couldn’t find a solution for. I’m happy to come away with three podiums as I feel like it could have been a lot worse but thankfully it wasn’t.

At the end of the day after what was a very hard weekend for us, we came away with two thirds and a second so we have to take all the positives from that. We made some good changes for the final race and that was definitely in the right direction. We have to see where we are at Silverstone and see what we can do there.

It’s been a very good start to the season, a win and podiums have given us some good points in the Championship which is the main thing. We were hoping for more at Snetterton but some issues held us back, but the team will address these before we get to Silverstone and see if they can be fixed. The Oxford Products Ducati team worked exceedingly hard as always this weekend and we have come away second in the Championship.”

We also had great success in the Ducati Cup races with Josh Day taking another two wins to extend his championship lead.

And John Hopkins got plenty of attention in his Alpinestars/Moto Rapido suit at the weekend’s MotoGP after riding some parade laps on a Moto2 bike at the Redbull ring.