Oulton Park: Round 9
What an amazing weekend for Tommy Bridewell and the Oxford Products Ducati Racing team at Oulton Park in the first showdown round of the Championship. He secured a strong sixth place in the opening race on Saturday and was just incredible on Sunday taking victories in both races, his first double win!
The weekend started well for Tommy and the practice sessions went really well putting him straight into Q2 on Saturday. In the final practice session in the wet conditions Tommy was quickest and despite damp condition for qualifying, unfortunately Tommy had a tyre issue and he was not able to gain grip anywhere which left him in 15th on the grid for the opening race.
He got a good start and was soon picking his way through the fierce riders and made good progress with some fast lap times. He managed to work his way back through to a strong sixth place.
He was also placed in sixth on the grid for the second race on Sunday; a tough start saw him drop back to ninth after the opening lap. He made a move on Mackenzie into the chicane but out braked himself and he was forced to run on through the barriers on the slip road. He re-joined down in 13th place and knew it was going to take a severe amount of determination and effort to get back to a podium position. One thing Tommy does not lack is grit and determination and his pace was exceptional, plucking off riders every lap and he was soon on the back of the leading pack. As always he made some clean and consistent passes, he had a foot on the podium but wanted more and had the pace to get more. On the final lap he made another strong pass on race leader Jason O’Halloran and took one of the best wins we have seen all season!
His super-fast lap times in race two saw him sitting in pole position for the third and final race of the day. Tommy got a fantastic start in race three and there was no turning back, despite spots of rain throughout the race Tommy just disappeared into the distance, gaining nearly a nine second lead at one point. He was absolutely phenomenal taking a hugely dominant win; he is now only 9 points off winning the Championship!
Tommy Bridewell – “Firstly I would like to dedicate my wins to Dean Berta Vinales who sadly lost his life at Jerez this weekend. Things like this affect the entire racing paddock and my wins are for him.
All in all it was a great weekend. I felt really good on the bike after some changes in warm-up, we made some big changes. I was struggling to stop the bike and I ended up running straight on down the long lap penalty, which was my fault. That obviously dropped me a long way down the field and I lost about 2.5 seconds. It wasn’t the time I lost it was the time and effort I had to put in to pass the riders I’d already passed! I seemed to have really good pace compared to anyone else which helped me take the win!
The plan in the second race was if I could make the start and get to the front just go! That’s what I managed to do, it’s easy to let another riders to do the hard work at the front but I knew if I could get off the line I had the pace. I couldn’t believe I could do nearly lap record pace on several laps, the bike was awesome, the team were amazing and now we’re 9 points off winning the Championship. We have to keep the pressure on Yamaha and see what we can do in the final two races of the year.”
Ducati Cup – Dominant Day reigns supreme!
Josh Day has been dominant all season and this weekend was no different!! He was fastest in every session and continues his streak of pole positions for qualifying.
Race 1 on Saturday Saw Josh take control of the race and win in style and Sundays Race 2 was the realisation that he could win the championship with one round remaining. Everyone else knew to keep the hunt alive they ad to beat Josh and David Shoebridge gave it his all and lead the race early on but Josh played it smart and as the race entered two thirds distance made his move, this was to be perfect as the race was then red flagged and Josh took the Championship for the THIRD time!!!