Milwaukee Yamaha’s Josh Brookes is now the out-right MCE British Superbike championship leader after doing the double in spectacular style at Cadwell Park. It is the sixth consecutive race win this season for the Australian and the last rider to do that was Leon Camier, back in 2009.
It was a case of deja vu for the Bringelly man as in a repeat of the opening race he led from the start and once again crossed the line with another lights-to-flag victory, which is the 26th race win of his BSB career and now leads on points and podium credits.
Brookes had a five second advantage over second place finisher, RAF Reserves BMW’s Peter Hickman. It was a double podium win for the local rider (who finished second in race-one), who successfully held off the attacks from Tyco BMW’s Tommy Bridewell and PBM Kawasaki’s Shane Byrne.
All the drama happened on the last lap, where it was a three-way dice for second place. At first it was Bridewell who led the charge on the penultimate lap but Hickman battled back at the Chicane and pushed his way in to third, with Byrne narrowly missing out on the podium credit he needed after crossing the line in fourth.
Initially it was Brookes who got the hole-shot from Mossey and Hickman. Buchan had a strong start but made a mistake and slipped back three paces to ninth. With fifteen laps remaining Byrne was secure in fourth but Bridewell had his aim firmly on a podium finish and got the better of the PBM Kawasaki rider at the foot of the mountain, pushing the quadruple-champ down to fifth.
On lap seven Mossey over shot the corner at Mansfield while fighting for the lead, with the Cambridge lad going wide Hickman was able to go into P2. Buildbase BMW’s Ryuichi Kiyonari experienced a technical problem at Park with ten laps to go, putting a massive dent in his Showdown ambitions.
Meanwhile Bridewell edged ahead of Mossey going into the opening corner on the Lincolnshire track to put his S1000RR up to third on lap eleven. While all the action was happening further down the field Brookes ploughed on ahead and had a three second advantage over Hickman.
Bridewell’s Tyco BMW team-mate Michael Laverty was riding high in seventh but crashed at the Chicane, and on the same rotation Byrne over took young gun, Mossey to go up to fourth. The Devizes native had the RAF Reserves machine of Hickman as his next target and was a man on a charge going into lap fourteen, and displaced the Louth lad to soar up to second, only for Hickman to hit back.
At the flag Quattro Plant Kawasaki’s Luke Mossey completed the top five followed by Smiths Racing’s Billy McConnell and Buildbase BMW’s Richard Cooper. Be Wiser Kawasaki’s Danny Buchan, JG Speedfit’s James Westmoreland and Honda Racing’s Dan Linfoot rounded up the top ten. But it was a day to forget for Moto Rapido Ducati’s John Hopkins as crashed on the final lap at the Hairpin, along with Quattro Plant Kawasaki’s Howie Mainwaring. Both riders were able to walk away from the incident.
