Cadwell Park: Round 6

It was a successful weekend for the Oxford Products Racing Ducati team at Cadwell Park, where Tommy Bridewell was able to secure a hat-trick of third places.

Tommy was consistently fourth during the practice and qualifying sessions and started the opening race from the second row in fourth. It’s no secret that he’s been struggling with his starts and after the opening lap he had dropped to sixth after the opening lap, he made some clean passes to take his first podium finish of the weekend.

For race two he started from fourth again and was eighth after the opening lap with a lot of work to do. His laps were super fast and he made good progress and some strong passes to fight his way up to third.

He set the fastest lap time and started the final race from pole position, a really tough start again saw him drop back but he made up some positions on the opening lap and was fourth after lap one. He got through to third and was in a battle for the win but just was not able to make a safe pass so it was three podiums in a row. Tommy is now in fourth in the overall Championship standings.

Tommy Bridewell: “All in all it was a good weekend. I felt good from off set with the bike. I felt happy and confident. Finishing third is a good achievement in BSB but I am slightly disappointed as you always want more and to win.

As a team we need to find that next step forward, we’re in a good place but need to fight for the wins and get a little bit more out of the bike. We have good points, good podium credits and it’s still very close in the Championship still. Thank you once again to the amazing Oxford Products Racing Ducati team for all their hard word.”

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Ducati Cup

Josh Day set the pace early on and qualified on Pole for the opening race and stormed away from the pack from lap one and ending the race with a 5.7 second lead over Chris Walker.

Race two saw Josh start from Pole yet again but weather conditions were damp and tricky, he made the decision to turn on the traction slightly which later caused him lap time as the circuit dried finishing 4th after leading the race for over half the distance.

Josh is still leading the Championship by 39 points to Chris Walker and Elliot Pinson at 54 points.

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We now move forward to Snetterton in two weeks with the team but have a little stop on route this week at the British Grand Prix at Silverstone Moto GP with the British Talent Cup to support our rider Ollie Walker.

Donington Park: Round 5

It was a strong weekend for the Oxford Products Racing Ducati team at Donington Park. Tommy Bridewell secured two fifths and topped the weekend off with an amazing win!

Practise and qualifying was tough but the team dug deep to qualify in seventh place on the grid for the opening race of the weekend.

He struggled off the start in the opening race and dropped to 10th after the opening lap but he quickly moved up through the field to sixth place at the finish but gained a position after Ryan Vickers was given a time penalty.

For race two he started from eighth on the grid, dropping down to 11th after lap one Tommy once again had his work cut out. He pushed hard through the field in some close battles avoiding some dramas to finish in a strong fifth.

For the final race of the weekend Tommy started from fourth place which put him in with a good chance of doing well. He got a good start and held his position but he was eager to get to the front and was soon making progress. He took to the front and bridged a gap of 3 seconds over the 20 lap race to secure a fantastic win. He is sitting in fifth in the Championship standings.

Tommy Bridewell - “It was a strong weekend in all. Happy with everything. I didn’t quite have the feeling I needed to fight for the victories in the first two races.

We did some good changes for the last race, I felt really comfortable in the race in the wet and dry and really pleased to take the win. It was a gamble on tyres as we’ve never used them before but it paid off. We are looking forward to a strong weekend at Cadwell.”

Moto3
Ollie Walker was fast all weekend and finished 4th,6th and 5th putting him 7th in the championship while Ryan Hitchcock is unfortunately still recovering from his broken arm and will miss the next round at Silverstone supporting the Moto GP in a couple of weeks.

Ducati Cup
Josh Day stormed his way to victory in race one Saturday winning by 3 seconds over Elliot Pinson but narrowly missed out to Elliot in race two by 0.018 seconds. He still leads the championship by 29 points.

Thruxton: Round 4

It was a tough weekend for the Oxford Products Ducati Racing team and Tommy Bridewell at Thruxton Circuit. Tommy was able to bring the Ducati home in 10th, 12th and 18th places respectively.

It was certainly challenging all weekend with mixed weather conditions and a circuit Tommy has always struggled at previously.

The team worked exceptionally hard to try and find a set-up that worked well for him around the super-fast Thruxton track. They made a drastic change for qualifying which unsettled the bike and rider and he was only able to qualify for race one in 18th place only managing four laps.

It was a big ask in the race but they made some changes and got the Ducati working well, he pushed hard to secure 10th on Saturday in race one. That put him in 15th for race two on Sunday. Tommy is still struggling a little off the start but once he got his head down he was in a battle for 8th but it was tight and he had to settle for 12th at the end of the 20 laps.

The heavens opened shortly before race three and tyre choice was always going to but key on what is a very grippy track. The team selected full wets but the track dried quickly and Tommy was really struggling for grip so pulled into the pits and swapped for a slick rear, by the time he got back out on track he had lost too much time and finished in 18th place and sadly no Championship points. He is however, still lying in 5th in the overall Championship tables and there is a lot of points still to play for, roll on Donington.

Tommy Bridewell: “It was a really difficult weekend with limited track time. Thruxton isn’t a circuit I’ve ever really gelled with, it doesn’t suit my riding style and just couldn’t get the feeling from the bike that I wanted and needed. It was a tricky weekend but we move onto Donington which is a track I love and we just have to put this one behind us and move on. It was hard but we’ll come back stronger.”

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Moto3
The lads showed amazing Pace in the opening practices with Ryan Hitchcock making his way to 4th before crashing and unfortunately breaking his arm putting him out for the weekend. He should be fit and back on the bike for the Silverstone British GP round at the end of August.

Ollie Walker qualified 4th and held his own amongst the top five guys but due to a stone in the radiator and loss of power he finished 5th, good news was he set the second quickest lap time putting him front row for Sundays race.

Sunday came and the heavens opened and for these very lite Moto3 bike the ponding water was too much and the race was cancelled and due to be run at Donington in a weeks’ time.

Brands Hatch GP: Round 3

It was a pretty successful weekend for the Oxford Products Ducati Racing team this weekend at Brands Hatch circuit with Tommy Bridewell. He secured two fantastic second places and was unfortunate to have a technical issue in the final race forcing him to retire.

Tommy and the team worked hard on Friday to get the bike set up for the fantastic Brands Hatch circuit and he was able to secure a place in Saturdays Superpicks, the top 12 riders from practice on Friday automatically get put straight into the second qualifying session.

The team worked hard overnight to make some more tweaks to the Ducati and again before qualifying. Tommy shined in that session and ended up on the front row in second place for the opening race of the weekend. He struggled off the start and was in sixth place when the red flag came out due to an incident on the circuit. On the re-start Tommy was eager to get a better start but once again found himself down in sixth place. He had to dig deep and make some strong passes but worked his way through the field, he was able to get on the back of Tarran Mackenzie but was not able to make a clean pass on him, securing a brilliant second place.

For race two on Sunday he was placed in fourth place on the grid, once again another bad start saw him slip back to eighth on the opening lap. He really did put in some amazing lap times to push his way through and made some exceptional passes to get up to second place again. He caught up 1.7 second gap to the back of Jason O Halloran but by this point his tyres did not have much left to make any moves, another very solid second place for Tommy.

A front row start for Tommy in the final race of the day, with mixed conditions anything was possible, the race was red flagged due to track contamination. A tyre swap in the pits and he was looking forward to getting out fighting again. However his chain broke on the opening lap and that was the end of the race for Tommy and the team.

Tommy Bridewell: “Firstly my thoughts go to Brad Jones and his family and friends, I hope he can continue to keep fighting and make a good recovery. That’s the most important part of the weekend, we all come racing to race and do well but the most important thing is that we all go home safe.

I’m really happy with the two second places this weekend, we made some really good progress, had a great qualifying session but I’m struggling a bit to get the bike off the line. I’m not making excuses but I’m dropping back on the start and having a lot of work to do to get back towards the front runners. By the time I’ve got back up to the leaders I’ve used most of my grip so then it’s harder to push. The team worked so hard as always and to come away with two second places is great. I’m gutted about race three but now we concentrate on Thruxton this weekend and hope for some more podium results.”

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The Ducati Cup saw our rider Josh Day take victory in race one and other supported rider fill four more spots inside the top ten but race two had it’s trouble with rain just before the start leaving riders unsure what tyre to choose, Josh opted for wets but the track dried up as the race went on to finish 6th and Chris walker (Moto Rapido rider) took his maiden victory this season as he opted for dry compound tyres.

Moto3 was equally action packed with Ryan Hitchcock completing his Practice sessions in P2 in the dry conditions but qualifying was wet… Ryan was 15th and Ollie Walker started his race from 11th.

The boys rode both so well despite Ollie's poor start he finished in 9th and Ryan stormed through the pack to almost grab a podium position in 4th!

Race two saw Ryan start from the front row, Ryan and Ollie finished 5th and 6th respectively, a great improvement from our young stars.

We now have a quick turnaround for Thruxton this week, Make sure you catch it on Quest tv or Eurosport player live this weekend

Knockhill: Round 2

The Oxford Products Ducati Racing team made the long trip north this weekend to the second round of the Bennetts British Superbike Championship at Knockhill Circuit where Tommy had a promising weekend with an eighth, fifth and seventh.

Tommy was struggling during the practice sessions to find a setting that he felt comfortable with at the tight and technical circuit. However, he was able to put in a fast lap towards the end of FP2 which put him into the Superpicks 12, straight into the qualifying two session.

Tommy worked hard during qualifying but ended up starting race one from 14th place. He knew he had a lot of work to do, he got a great start and was soon pushing forwards. He was able to work his way through to a strong eighth place. This also put him on eighth on the grid for race two on Sunday.

He got a steady start in race two but soon got into a rhythm and worked hard to secure a fantastic fifth place. For the final race of the weekend he was placed in eighth again and had to do all the work again, he had another tough battle but brought the Oxford Products Ducati home in seventh place

In our Moto 3 news we had a mixed weekend, Ryan Hitchcock pushed hard during practice to be 2nd fastest but the next mornings qualifying session was wet and he started 12th on the grid with Ollie Walker in 18th. Both of them had good starts but Ryan fell at the hairpin while Ollie pushed through to finish 8th.

Race 2 was better for them both with Ryan in 9th and Ollie in 6th with a lap time of 54.999.

Tommy Bridewelll: “It was a positive weekend, I am happy with the progress we made all weekend and as always the team worked so hard. We missed the test at Knockhill, which put us on the back foot so we had to work extra hard to get the results.

Knockhill isn’t my favourite circuit and I don’t think it’s the strongest for Ducati, I’m glad it’s done and out the way now and we can move onto tracks where I know we go well.

I think we’ve had a strong start to the season, we are understanding the bike really well now and looking forward to the rest of the 2021 campaign. I can’t wait to get to Brands and use all the potential the Ducati has there."

We now head to Brands Hatch for round three of the Championship where we have seen much success for all our riders and hope to see some of you there now we can have more crowds back!

Building and running a BSB race bike – how much really goes into it?

Although a superbike may look like a regular machine you could ride out of a dealership, it really is anything but. Carl Stevens recently caught up with the Oxford Products Racing team at Moto Rapido to find out just what it takes to build and race one of these weapons.

Whether you’re heavily into your racing or not, there’s no denying that top level racing bikes really are works of art; machines sculpted with the sole purpose of being as fast as possible. Every single part on a superbike there for function, whether that’s to keep it on the cusp of the rulebook, or to shave off those vital tenths when it comes down to gunning for a lap time.

And standing at the side of a track, although a superbike looks trick it’s only when you get up close that you can really appreciate the time, effort and extravagance that goes into creating one of these monsters. For example, the Oxford Products Racing Ducati is a relatively small team, running out of the workshop of Moto Rapido Ducati in Hampshire, yet even so, there is a mechanic whose sole, full-time job is just to work on Tommy Bridewell’s race bike. It’s not just a case of bolting some bits on either, oh no, as nothing is that simple. For example, with such a busy schedule for this year, the team need a bunch of engines in rotation, yet even these take days to put together. They come direct from Ducati Corse in Italy, and arrive as multiple boxes of parts and bolts, that is then assembled by the crew in Winchester. But it sets the scene nicely for the little details; the thumb brake, for example operates the clutch and the clutch lever operates the rear brake, and every single part of the Panigale looks like it was crafted to perfection – which, if you’ve ever built a race bike before, you’ll know is nigh on impossible.

And then pretty much everything around the engine has been designed solely for this exact machine, in this exact championship. The exhaust and the tank for example are built for Moto Rapido to an exact spec, which then means that they need to make bespoke fairings to fit on, which then means that they alter the engine covers to look and fit nicely… the list goes on, and that’s before they even switch it on.

Because that’s where the hard work really begins. In line with British Superbike rules, all machines run a spec Motec ECU, which means that the amount of fine tuning that has to be done to create a fast, effective race bike that will make a tyre last over a full race distance is infinite. And we haven’t even touched on the datalogging of brakes, throttle trace, suspension…

But don’t just take our word for it – Watch the video below to get the inside line from Steve ‘Wilf’ Moore on what it takes to manage a successful superbike squad.