Tommy Bridwell turned his weꦯekend around on the seco𝄹nd day of race action at Oulton Park, with more points on offer in the Showdown and the weather playing it’s part.

Saturday h꧟ad been a hard one for the Honda UK rider - losing his championship lead to nearest rival Kyle Ryde after a DNF:

“Tough weekend for sure, well it wasn’t a tough weekend, it was just, if I’m honest, we as a team, we’re obviously always pushing and thriving to develop the bike and leave no stone unturned, We had some new parts, that, in truth, we need to spend a bit more time on - it was very posꦗitive on the Friday, but we just didn’t have the time to get it ꦿright. So we sort of lost that day and then , obviously we had to revert back for the Saturday.

Im꧒mediately I felt really strong on the bike Saturday morning and then straight into qualifying, 🌸front row, felt great”.

• 2024 Bri💝tish Superbikes: Oulton Park (Showdown) - Race Results (3)
• 2024 British Superbikes: Oulton Park (Showdow🌳n) - Race Results (2)

All was we🅰ll, until a very early lap one crash saw the #1 bike unexpectedly out of action:

“Unfortunately I didn’t get a chance to do any sort of full fuel load simulations or anything so probably a little bit of naivety, weirdly, or stupidity is probably the better word - that going into the race yesterday I felt, you know, I knew I could get a good start, be patient and let the race come to me. It’s a really, really peculiar crash yesterday, which was frustrating because, honestly, still not 100% su🀅re the answer, I know why I crashed, it’s just very peculiar I did crash”.

Sunday brought more weather challenges, and although race two was better for Bridewell, finishing the sprint fourth, with Ryde down in 13th, it wasn’t withou🐼t it’s own challenges, with the reigning champion suffering visor issues:

“I knew the bike was strong, I knew today the weather was going to be intermittent, so the wet race this morning was good until, in truth, my visor wouldn’t disperse the water, so I couldn’t really see, so when I got in behind Leon every time I could, lets say, catch him, I couldn’t physically. Couldn’t see five foot in front of me, so I know I was sort o🧸f in trouble - especially when the rest come past me, so it was a bit of a salvage job”.

Race three saw improvements again with a return to the podium in the red flagged race. Bridewell credited the last Superbike round in France, which h൲e watch꧙ed with interest as he is due to make a guest ride in the championship at Cremona, with giving him the confidence to push on his tyre choice:

“In that race, if I’m honest, I was rea🐻lly, really, really happy with my riding on the intermediate front, slick rear because, in truth, it’s never been my forte of conditions.

Then I watched Magny-Cours last weekend and I saw Garrett Gerloff and it was wꦅet on inters and I was like ‘bloody hell, they obvious𝔍ly do work quite well!’ I took confidence from that and it’s the best I’ve ridden with an inter front, slick rear”.

Bridewell heads to the next Showdown round back in the championsh🧔ip lead with 334 points, now holding 🌱a six point advantage over Ryde.