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Tuesday, 03 July 2007 |
21 year old Wiltshire rider Ollie Bridewell overcame difficult conditions to record a pair of top ten finishes when round seven of the Bennetts British Superbike Championship visited Knockhill in Scotland at the weekend.
Riding the Team NB 1000cc Suzuki, the racer from Etchilhampton near Devizes equalled his career-best eighth place in the opening race with another battling top ten placing in the day’s second race at heavy rain threw the meeting into turmoil.
After a disappointing qualifying session, Bridewell lined up on row
five of the grid and on a rapidly drying track, Ollie circulated in the
leading bunch in race one before eventually finishing the 24 lap race
in eighth place aboard the Pirelli-shod bike.
Race two was again delayed as the organisers battled against the
elements but it was eventually run over 26 laps and another battling
performance saw Ollie bring the bike home in tenth place after a race
long battle with the experienced Sean Emmett.
It wasn’t such a successful weekend for 18 year old brother Tommy who
failed to add to his points tally following on from his big accident
two weeks ago at Mondello Park.
Battered and bruised and struggling with suspension problems, Tommy
posted a pair of brave top twenty finishes but had to concede defeat
after a demanding weekend.
Ollie Bridewell: “I’m reasonably happy with my performance and I don’t
think anyone else could have ridden my bike any harder whoever they
were. It was great to battling up towards the front with the likes of
Lavilla, Emmett and Harris and I felt comfortable throughout the two
races. We need to replicate this form into the dry conditions now and
although we don’t have any testing planned between now and then, I hope
to step it up a gear at Oulton Park in two weeks time.”
Tommy Bridewell: “I’m still feeling the effects of that crash
at Mondello and I think it knocked a bit of confidence out of me if I’m
being honest. That said, we’d struggled all weekend with the rear
suspension and we didn’t get a setting that I was happy with but at
least it’s a couple of finishes and we move on to Oulton Park where I
scored some good points last time there so the others had better watch
out!”
Team NB are not attending the official MCRCB test at Croft this week
but will be in action at the next round of the Bennetts British
Superbike Championship which takes place at Oulton Park in Cheshire
over the weekend of July 13th to 15th.
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