Both VisionTrack Ducati riders in the points at the third and final race of the weekend at Thruxton

The final race of the weekend at Thruxton was declared a wet one. But changing conditions meant tricky choices for the grid, with many riders opting for wet fronts and intermediate rear tyres.

A poor start from Christian Iddon saw him drop from tenth on the grid to 13th as the race got going, while his VisionTrack Ducati teammate Josh Brookes was back in 22nd. Tommy Bridewell got the best start of out of the Ducati riders, up to eight from a 13th place grid spot on his Oxford Products Racing Ducati on the opening lap.

Bridewell was looking strong at the start of the race and was soon up to fifth before starting to drop back down the field.

By half-race distance it was Christian Iddon who was the leading Ducati rider, after moving up into eighth, while Bridewell had slipped further down the pack to 12th, and Brookes holding 16th.

Lap 12 saw rain starting fall in sections of the track but on the following lap and after continuing to go backwards, Bridewell headed into the pits to swap his rear intermediate for a slick, re-joining the race in 23rd. And although he soon gained places back, his tyre change gamble did not pay off and he finished his race in 18th.

Christian Iddon, his grid position hampered by his Race 2 DNF, crossed the finish line in ninth, while Brookes got his first points of the weekend after finishing in 14th.

Christian Iddon (VisionTrack Ducati #21) – 9th
“It’s been a tough weekend all round as we have had minimal set-up time due to the changeable weather since Friday, so we’ve had to work with what we had. Yesterday’s race was a bit scrappy but I somehow managed to get a podium and I felt I could repeat that today when Lee collided with me and that was the end of that. In Race 3, the changing conditions meant it was a bit of a lottery and although we chose a good tyre combination, the best I could do was ninth. So, we regroup and go again at Donington Park in a couple of weeks.”

Josh Brookes (VisionTrack Ducati #1) – 14th
“I’m upbeat. Felt like I rode really good in that race. You get those indicators, the front’s going and the rear’s sliding, you’re doing all the things that feel good when you’re at the front and you’re pushing the limit. I was doing all the stuff I usually do, just not in the television audience’s view. I feel good in myself. I just need to keep reporting the information back and eventually something will have to change. I think if you continue to do the same thing the same way hoping for a different result it’s not really the right way of working. Hopefully if I keep giving the right information back we’ll get some change. We’ll see how we go as the rounds go on. 

On corner entry the rear doesn’t really grip the track that well. If you think 80% of the braking is happening with front wheel and maybe 20% is coming from the rear, then I have lost 20% of my efficiency going into a corner because the rear isn’t helping the front. And this changes between sessions, obviously we increase engine braking, decrease engine braking stuff like that, trying to find a setting. And then as I get to the middle of the corner and lean it over, normally the sensation you feel is the tyres get grip and the suspension loads into the tyres and you can use that captive energy to accelerate out of the turn. But I just get a chattery feeling and the bike just skits away mid-corner. And here especially, it was just spinning. As I come out of the turn I go to accelerate with the other riders I’m around and the rear’s just spinning, spinning, spinning. It’s quite a difficult situation to understand exactly where the problems are. As the rider, my duty is to ride the bike and give the information back and hopefully at some point the information they collect with the data or the comments I make will unearth a change that will bring us forward. It makes it even harder when Christian’s on the other side of the garage and they say “Christian’s fine, you just need to go quicker.” But we’ll work through it.”

Tommy Bridewell (Oxford Products Racing Ducati #46) - 18th
"A very, very tricky weekend for us. Me and Thruxton just don’t work unfortunately. Sorry to the team but the positive is it’s done and now we move onto some strong tracks for us. Can’t wait."