Milwaukee Yamaha’s Josh Brookes did the MCE British Superbike double, adding to his earlier race-one victory at Assen. The Bringelly rider held off the challenges from fellow Showdown rider, JG Speedfit Kawasaki’s James Ellison to take the race-two win in mixed conditions.
Brookes’ main rival, PBM Kawasaki’s Shane Byrne crossed the finishing line in fifth, and missed out on a podium at the Dutch track. So with the Australian bagging maximum points today he extends his lead over Byrne to 28 points in the overall championship standings.
In the end it was another second place finish for Ellison who closes the gap to thirteen over Byrne. Quattro Plant Kawasaki’s Luke Mossey fought hard with Buildbase BMW’s Richard Cooper to clinch the final podium spot in third.
But the final race of the day was delayed due to the changeable weather conditions, and in the end the race was declared wet, and was given a new distance of fifteen laps.
Brookes got the holeshot ahead of Byrne, Iddon and Linfoot. The Honda Racing man was the only rider to go out on full wet tyres, and on the penultimate corner on the opening lap he pushed past Brookes to take the lead.
Three rotations later Linfoot soared on ahead and had a three second advantage over rivals Brookes and Byrne. But a lap later the rest of the riders started to regain some confidence as the track started to dry and Brookes got the speed on the straight to go back into the front.
Linfoot made a mistake and fell back down to sixteenth, allowing a gaggle of riders to go through. But Brookes was being challenged by young gun, Luke Mossey and coming out of the Geert Timmer Chicane the Quattro Plant Kawasaki machine overtook the Australian to take the lead for the first time in his BSB career..
But Mossey, on lap eight made a mistake going into the chicane allowing Showdown rider, Ellison to go into the front, followed closely by Mossey, Cooper and Brookes.
With six laps remaining Brookes decided to fight back and made a move on Cooper to go back into third and then overtook Mossey at Ruskenhoek to go into second, and had Ellison as his next target.
With two thirds of the race distance completed the fight for third intensified with Mossey and Cooper both dicing for the coveted podium, with both riders overtaking each other.
While Cooper and Mossey were battling for third Brookes found that extra pace on his R1 and narrowed the gap to Ellison so that he was able to make a move on the Cumbrian to re-take the provisional number one spot on the rostrum on the penultimate lap.
At the flag Brookes was just too strong and crossed the line in first for the second time today. Mossey got the better of Cooper to snatch third, with PBM Kawasaki’s Shane Byrne completing the top five.
Showdown racer, Tyco BMW’s Michael Laverty ended the final race of the day in ninth, just ahead of Milwaukee Yamaha’s Jakub Smrz who rounded up the top ten, with Moto Rapido Ducati’s John Hopkins in hot pursuit in eleventh.
After such a strong start, title challenger Linfoot slipped back to 22nd as the track was dry at the end of the fifteen-lapper and he soon fell outside the points. It was a brave ride from Team WD-40’s Jack Kennedy, who is still suffering from an ankle injury. The Dubliner pushed through the pain barrier to finish well inside the top ten in seventh with housewives favourite, Chris Walker in eighth.
There were a few fallers out on the Dutch track, most notably Showdown racer, Tyco BMW’s Tommy Bridewell. The Devizes Swearbox crashed while in eighth at Mandeveen but managed to hobble away from the incident.
Bridewell was not the only racer to succumb to the circuit; Smiths Racing’s Billy McConnell took a tumble at Ruskenhoek and Honda Racing’s Jenny Tinmouth fell at Mandeveen on lap four.
