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19 year old Wiltshire rider
Tommy Bridewell returned to the Bennetts
British Superbike Championship in style by recording a pair of top twenty finishes
at the penultimate round of the series at Donington Park.
Aboard the 1000cc Team NB Suzuki, the Etchilhampton
near Devizes rider took his
time to get up to speed on Friday
following a couple of months out of action but was
well on the pace during Saturday's final free practice session when a 130mph
crash at the infamous Craner Curves curtailed his session despite him walking away
uninjured.
Saturday afternoon's
qualifying session saw him placed on row seven of the grid for both of today's
races and following a good start, he battled to a brilliant 18th place in the
opening 20 lap encounter before following that up with a 19th place in race two,
much to the delight of the tens of thousands of fans at the Leicestershire
circuit.
Whilst the results may not have
emulated the top ten placings at both Silverstone and Snetterton earlier in the season,
Bridewell and the Team NB staff were reasonably happy with their weekend's
work.
"It's been a difficult weekend at times for everyone
but we needed to get back to doing what we do and that's to go racing. Having
not raced a bike properly since June, I felt very rusty for the first couple of
days and the big crash didn't help during practice but race one saw me get back
into the groove but then in race two, I really started to enjoy it
once everything started flowing again. I'd like to thank the team and all the
fans for their support this weekend, it has meant a lot to me and my family and
perhaps we can get back to scoring points at Brands Hatch" said
Tommy.
The final round of the championship takes place at Brands
Hatch in Kent over the weekend of October 12/14th and in addition to racing the
Team NB Suzuki, Tommy plans on doing a couple of 'demonstration' laps in the
special' Yamaha R1-engined Mini which was a project
he started with brother Ollie and which he and a number of
friends have completed since Ollie's accident at Mallory Park
Picture courtesy of
Paul Korkus
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