Pole, win and fastest lap for Josh Brookes in the opening triple-header race at Brands Hatch, Tommy Bridewell and Scott Redding finish 2nd and 3rd

The opening triple-header race at Brands Hatch saw Be Wiser Ducati’s Josh Brookes make a clean get away to lead from pole onboard his Panigale V4 R.

Meanwhile teammate Scott Redding had his work cut out in his bid for victory after a fuelling issue in Q3 saw him forced to start from the 3rd row of the grid. A poor start saw the championship leader have to work his way up the field from the mid pack, but by Lap 5 was just 3 seconds off the leading group of riders.

Tommy Bridewell started from 4th, and although he dropped a position off the grid, the Oxford Racing Ducati rider had soon despatched several riders and was closing down race leader Brookes and setting up a thrilling race until the red flag came out due to track contamination.

The restarted 12-lap race saw Brookes and Bridewell start from 1st and 2nd respectively, while Redding lined up in in 7th. Once again Brookes got away well to lead. Bridewell dropped a position on his start, but soon made a great move on Christian Iddon (Tyco BMW Motorrad) around the outside of Hawthorns to take 2nd. 

By half-race distance Bridewell was half a second behind leader Brookes, whilst having built a 4.7s lead over the chasing pack of Iddon, Danny Buchan (FS-3 Racing Kawasaki), Jason O’Halloran (McAMS Yamaha) and Redding in 6th.

On Lap 8 Redding passed both O’Halloran and Buchan, before going on to pass Iddon at Hawthorns for 3rd on the next lap.

Brookes went on to take the chequered flag in dominant fashion, with Bridewell 2nd and Redding claiming 3rd for another all-Ducati podium. 

The Ducati riders will start the first of Sunday’s two races in that same order on the front row with Brookes in pole again.

The Bennetts British Superbike title remains all to play for between the two Be Wiser Ducati riders, while Bridewell will now be aiming to secure 3rd in the championship ahead of Buchan.

Josh Brookes (Be Wiser Ducati #25) – 1st
“I didn’t really get a great favour with that red flag situation, but it is what it is. You know I got the favour in the fact that Scott had misfortune in qualifying. So, balance has been restored. I’ve done the best I can do. I’m on pole position for tomorrow’s race so another great opportunity to push forward again. And I just want to focus on trying to be at the front and trying to win and what happens behind me can happen.”

Tommy Bridewell (Oxford Racing Ducati #46) – 2nd
“All in all, we’ve had a phenomenal season. The team have done a flawless job and I need to say credit to the them because Wilf, Oxford Products, Moto Rapido, everyone involved with that machine, it’s unbelievable. Credit to the team. I’d like to think that We pushed the PBM guys as hard as I could all year. Yes, it would have been nice to take it a little bit further but 2020 we’ll come back even stronger, obviously I’ve resigned already. I’d like to say a massive thanks to everyone who has and does support me, it genuinely means a lot. All my family, my wife, everyone at home, my sister and everyone. The philosophy or the mentality doesn’t change tomorrow. We still go out and try for wins and see what we can do.”

Scott Redding (Be Wiser Ducati #45) – 3rd
“I’m quite happy. I didn’t have the easiest of days. I couldn’t qualify in Q3 ad that put me in 9th position which is a very difficult place to be at the beginning of the race. Then I got off, I got through a few guys then Luke. Put me 5 seconds to the leaders. I closed the gap again and then it got red-flagged. But I used a lot of tyre in that first race to catch them, I came from 4-5 seconds, so I knew now for that race 2 I was going to struggle with the tyre. 

Again 7th position, a lot of guys fighting around. And I just struggled with drive, I couldn’t really overtake people. And I thought, ok, I need to finish 3rd, I need to take some risk. I did it. I finished 3rd, it was the minimum I could do today. I’m happy but I hope tomorrow we have aneasier day tomorrow.”