A constructive Friday for Superbike Advocates Racing at Cremona

Superbike Advocates Racing and rider Tommy Bridewell are in action at Italy’s Cremona Circuit, which is staging the tenth round of the 2026 Superbike World Championship this weekend.

Having sustained injury in a crash at the latest Magny-Cours round, Bridewell was assessed by the circuit’s medical team on Thursday and declared fit to compete in this weekend’s racing. The first practice got underway mid-morning on Friday in cool, cloudy conditions. Bridewell made a good first exit but was looking for a setup solution that would allow him to ride more smoothly. With work to do on this first day, not least because the team was unable to take part in a recent test at this track due to Tommy’s injury, the rookie rider and his technicians used the remainder of this opening session to identify areas on which to work in preparation for FP2. Bridewell placed a temporary sixteenth, having set a time of 1’29.646.

The second of three practices ran mid-afternoon in warmer conditions. An incident for another rider in the first few minutes caused a red flag, with the session resuming a short time later. Focused on the task at hand, Bridewell quickly improved on his best of FP1 by eight tenths of a second, which went a long way to increasing his confidence at a track he hasn’t visited since 2024. This, in addition to a few small adjustments to the electronic setup of his Panigale V4 R, allowed Tommy to make good progress this afternoon. An improvement in both level of feeling and consistency saw the SBK rookie set a best of 1’28.868 to position fifth in FP2 and seventh in the combined standings as this first day of action draws to a close.

Superbike Advocates Racing will be back out on Saturday, ready for a final practice, qualifying and the first of the weekend’s 23-lap races.

Tommy Bridewell (Superbike Advocates Racing #46)
“We were a little bit behind when we started FP1, having not tested here. I wasn’t comfortable on the bike this morning, to be honest, with areas that I felt made it difficult to ride. In addition, I’m lacking a little in terms of track knowledge, so I’ve probably been trying to speed up the process a little today. 

The track feels quite different to what I remember; I thought it would suit me and my style, as it’s quite a stop-start track, and that is the case, but it’s also a track where, if you make a small mistake through one corner, it’s very hard to make up for that over the rest of the lap. That meant that I was struggling to string laps together this morning, whereas this afternoon I was able to do more, which gave me better overall feeling. That said, there are still areas where I feel I’m not riding correctly, and I don’t feel I’m back to full fitness yet either. 

I’ve just got to be sensible this weekend, I think. If we can make the bike ‘help’ me as much as possible, then we’ll be able to take another step in the right direction tomorrow. Ideally, we need a little more pace, so we’ll see what we can do there.”