British Superbikes: Redding lights up TT Circuit Assen as Ryde leads title chase to Oulton Park
Scott Redding celebrated a double race win at the TT Circuit Assen by taking victory after a three-way battle in the final Bennetts British Superbike Championship race of the weekend, sharing today’s victories with Christian Iddon who became the eighth different race winner of the season.
Defending champion Kyle Ryde leaves the opening round of the Showdown with the lead in the standings by 31 points ahead of Oulton Park.
On the return to the TT Circuit Assen, seven different riders representing seven different teams celebrated podium finishes with two rounds of the title fight now remaining.
In the second race of the weekend, Iddon mastered the wet conditions to hold off both Rory Skinner and Ray. In the changing conditions, he launched off the line to lead the pack on the opening lap. Skinner meanwhile had started 18th on the grid after a difficult race yesterday; fighting his way through the pack on the Cheshire Mouldings Ducati, and was into third place by lap five.
Iddon was holding the edge at the front, with Ray pushing to regain the ground he lost after a crash yesterday with Skinner and a hard-charging Leon Haslam holding the leading positions. Skinner moved into second at the Chicane on lap ten, with Ray shadowing him but despite the gap changing throughout the race to the front, Iddon was victorious at the chequered flag.
Skinner held second place, whilst Ray’s third place finish meant he gained ten points back on his title rival Ryde, who salvaged eighth on the final lap. The defending champion gained pace in the closing stages of the second race to regain ground, having run in 11th place for the first half of the race.
In the final race of the weekend, Redding celebrated his second race win of the weekend as the Hager PBM Ducati rider emerged on top following a dogfight with Haslam and Ryde. The Nitrous Competitions Racing Yamaha rider now heads to the penultimate round at Oulton Park with a 31-point advantage over Ray.
The race initially started with a huge battle at the front between Ryde, Iddon and Haslam as they traded positions in the dry conditions until the start of lap four when a shower began and the race was subsequently red flagged and restarted.
The shower passed and the race restarted in dry conditions and Ryde launched into the lead ahead of Storm Stacey, Haslam and Iddon. However, after claiming victory earlier today for AJN Steelstock Kawasaki, Iddon crashed out unhurt on the opening lap.
At the front, Haslam moved into second and the leading group began to start making a break with Ryde, Haslam, Stacey, Tommy Bridewell and Redding with Ray just adrift on the Raceways Yamaha.
Bridewell then moved ahead of Stacey and a few laps later, Ray also made his move, however later in the race, the Bathams AJN Racing BMW rider would make a move back for fifth to push the championship contender into sixth at the chequered flag.
At the front the final two lap dogfight began with Ryde leading, however Redding was on the attack and claimed the position on the special edition liveried Hager PBM Ducati, celebrating the 70th anniversary of their title partner.
Haslam then made a move to change the leader again and as the trio began the final lap of the race, the Moto Rapido Ducati Racing rider was ahead of Redding and Ryde with nothing separating them for victory.
Redding seized the advantage at turn one and Haslam and Ryde were both pushing, but he was able to hold off the pair to make it a double on Bennetts BSB’s return to the TT Circuit Assen with Haslam in turn holding off Ryde.
Bennetts British Superbike Championship, TT Circuit Assen, Race 2 result:
- Christian Iddon (AJN Steelstock Kawasaki)
- Rory Skinner (Cheshire Mouldings Ducati) +1.241s
- Bradley Ray (Raceways Yamaha) +2.848s
- Tommy Bridewell (Honda Racing UK) +4.963s
- Leon Haslam (Moto Rapido Ducati Racing) +7.278s
- Charlie Nesbitt (MasterMac Honda) +9.973s
- Fraser Rogers (TAG Honda) +10.776s
- Kyle Ryde (Nitrous Competitions Racing Yamaha) +11.195s
- Storm Stacey (Bathams AJN Racing BMW) +11.372s
- John McPhee (MasterMac Honda) +19.676s
Bennetts British Superbike Championship, TT Circuit Assen, Race 3 result:
- Scott Redding (Hager PBM Ducati)
- Leon Haslam (Moto Rapido Ducati Racing) +0.505s
- Kyle Ryde (Nitrous Competitions Racing Yamaha) +0.624s
- Tommy Bridewell (Honda Racing UK) +2.748s
- Storm Stacey (Bathams AJN Racing BMW) +10.137s
- Bradley Ray (Raceways Yamaha) +10.182s
- Charlie Nesbitt (MasterMac Honda) +11.841s
- Rory Skinner (Cheshire Mouldings Ducati) +15.170s
- Fraser Rogers (TAG Honda) +17.652s
- Glenn Irwin (Nitrous Competitions Racing Yamaha) +21.698s
Bennetts British Superbike Championship standings:
- Kyle Ryde (Nitrous Competitions Racing Yamaha) 391
- Bradley Ray (Raceways Yamaha) 360
- Leon Haslam (Moto Rapido Ducati Racing) 280
- Rory Skinner (Cheshire Mouldings Ducati) 268
- Christian Iddon (AJN Steelstock Kawasaki) 240
- Tommy Bridewell (Honda Racing UK) 236
- Danny Kent (McAMS Racing Yamaha) 217
- Scott Redding (Hager PBM Ducati) 207.5
- Max Cook (AJN Steelstock Kawasaki) 182
- Charlie Nesbitt (MasterMac Honda) 158
SCOTT REDDING
HAGER PBM DUCATI
“In the first race this morning I felt like a right goon riding round back there! With this livery, you’re supposed to deliver when you’ve got special things like this, it fired me up. I had a bad tyre and nothing I could do, so I was thinking ‘do I risk just throwing it down the road for a couple of positions, not really worth it to be honest’.
“And then I came in and I didn’t even bank a lap time for the next race, so I thought I was 13th but turned out to be 15th so I thought, come on, wind me up some more baby. I got off to the first start of the race and I had it between my teeth, but had a bit more control than Donington, so I learnt my lesson last time out and I was firing up overtakes, which has been my weaker point.
“I’ve been a little bit nicer to these guys but I had to turn the wick up to come up through and I moved up and they started putting their hands up, safety is always first and then I had a nice reset and start eighth on the grid so the luck started to change for me.
“Then we went out for that second restart and my start wasn’t too bad, I don’t remember the start of races, it is just chaos but just needed to move up. I got to Leon, Kyle was holding a good enough pace that I couldn’t reel him fast enough so couldn’t take a breather, I thought I might have a little bit in the pocket but he was just hitting markers as he always does and keeps it clean and Leon was just defending from me.
“I was kind of waiting to pounce on Kyle and I knew I needed to get in to that mix and then with a few laps to go the sparks flew and we were throwing everything at each other but it was super clean tidy racing. You know I love racing like that where it is hard, you get so much adrenaline but its clean and fair, there was no dirty moves and respected each other and we put on a show out there. To have that anniversary for Hager and to win and race with these boys has been amazing.”
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