Josh Brookes does the double at Oulton Park to claim the Panigale V4 R’s maiden BSB win, Tommy Bridewell scores two 2nd place finishes

Josh Brookes made up for his non-points misfortune at Silverstone’s opening British Superbikes round to claim the Ducati Panigale V4 R’s maiden pole position at Oulton Park this weekend. 

Starting from the front row in both BSB races, Brookes led for the entirety of them, going on to claim a double win, his first victories with his Be Wiser Ducati team.

In both races Brookes was kept honest by Oxford Racing’s Tommy Bridwell, who claimed his first pole position on the Panigale V4 R for Race 2. The pair or Ducati riders were able to pull a gap on consecutive 3rd-placed Danny Buchan (FS-3 Racing Kawasaki), to twice finish as a Ducati 1-2.

Brookes’ Be Wiser Ducati teammate Scott Redding also had a strong Round 2 at Oulton Park, despite having never visited the Cheshire circuit before. Redding finished Race 1 in 5th and made several passes in Race 2 to finish 4th, less than 2.5 seconds off a podium position.

Brixx Ducati’s Sylvain Barrier was able to make improvements throughout the entire weekend, with valuable data collected for his new team.

Josh Brookes (Be Wiser Ducati #25) – Race 1 & 2, 1st
"When you ride for the PBM team, people expect you to win and it’s hard to maintain that level, so I’m delighted to get my first wins for them at round two, especially as Oulton Park is their local circuit. Neither race was easy, but we made good progress at the test last month and it meant we could come here this weekend and just make small refinements to the bike rather than big changes which enabled me to be quick from the off. My pace was stronger in the second race and although Tommy came with me again, I was able to break him in the final third and it’s always nice going into the last lap with a bit of a buffer. What happened at Silverstone was just one of those things and I think a few people were a bit more down than perhaps they should have been, but this is the perfect way to bounce back."

Scott Redding (Be Wiser Ducati #45) – Race 1, 5th – Race 2, 4th
"I'm really happy with the job today. Whole weekend actually considering we had a lot of red flags, some rain sessions, a crash in the morning hurt my ankle a little bit and a track I don't know. I was really happy with that. The team done a great job, was a lot more relaxed this weekend now everybody settled in. Also, the riders in the race where not so, crazy should we say? Everyone has calmed down a bit. So, I really enjoyed it. And a track I don't know, that still scares me a lot riding, I enjoyed it you know, phenomenal. It's something I've been missing in racing for a couple of years now."

Tommy Bridewell (Oxford Racing) – Race 1 & 2, 2nd
"That was a pretty relentless pace, I must admit. To be honest, when Josh started going, he just had more rear grip. I was struggling… as soon as I was chucking the bike on its side mid-corner, I was losing the rear a lot. I had a go, I dug as deep as I could. Actually, tried to make a pass on him early because I thought I'd see if maybe just could slow it down a little bit. Fair play, I put my hands up, he beat me fair and square today. Credit to the team though, they gave me a phenomenal bike. All the sponsors, Oxford Products, Moto Rapido, everyone involved it's put me back in this position… We're here to fight for this championship."

Sylvain Barrier (Brixx Ducati #20) – Race 1, 17th - Race 2, 19th
"I was really looking forward to coming back here. It is a track I enjoy because it is like no other track you can find anywhere else in the world. You need to have ridden here a number of years before you can go really fast. I am really happy with the weekend as every session we improved. We came from a point far away. We had some help from the guys at Moto Rapido and it made a big difference. In race 2, I improved my pace by half a second. This is very good, and the potential of the bike is huge, I didn’t even feel that I had done a 36.5, it came really easy. Now we need to put everything together and we are not far away, and I need to improve on my start. The weekend was good, no crashes, improvements in every session, I just need more time on the bike and some fast laps, but I enjoyed my battles with Forés. It was a good weekend."

Tarran MACKENZIE (Yamaha) 64 points
Tommy BRIDEWELL (Ducati) 64 points
Danny BUCHAN (Kawasaki) 55 points
Josh ELLIOTT (Suzuki) 52 points
Josh BROOKES (Ducati) 50 points
Scott REDDING (Ducati) 40 point