The fourth round of the British Superbike Championship (BSB) season took place at Knockhill this weekend, with three different winners in three races: Chris Iddon, Rory Skinner and Tommy Bridewell.
Bridewell (Honda Racing UK) came out on top in qualifying and led the first race on Saturday. The track was drying out after heavy rain earlier. While the leader was solid, other riders were fighting for positions: including Skinner (Cheshire Mouldings BMW Motorrad), who had to make a recovery to reach the podium places. Bridewell had no rivals and cut the gap to 2.572s to Skinner – whose decisive overtake on Andrew Irwin (Honda Racing UK) came on lap 16.
On Sunday, the rain was also present at Knockhill. This time, Bridwell led at the first corner of the second race, while Irwin crashed on the first lap. Skinner quickly took the lead, then began to pull away while the positions behind him were hotly contested. Iddon (Oxford Products Racing Ducati) crossed the line in second at 4.895s, after a close fight with Bridewell in which he led by just 0.014s. Danny Kent (McAMS Yamaha) was in the group fighting for the top two until he fell at the Hairpin.
Race three brought the programme to an end at Knockhill. Kent started from pole position for this race, but was soon attacked by Skinner, who was in first place by turn three. Iddon became the new leader on the second lap, while Kent dropped to fifth. Once at the top, Iddon stayed there until the race was stopped with a red flag on lap 22 due to a heavy crash by Leon Haslam (ROKiT Haslam Racing BMW Motorrad). The race was not restarted and Iddon won, with Bridewell second at 0.635s. Kent recovered to fourth after overtaking Skinner on lap 20.
After four rounds, Bridewell is the BSB leader with 141 points, against 130 points for Glenn Irwin (Hager PBM Ducati) who had his worst round of the season so far. Kent is third, 16 points off the top.