Bennetts Suzuki’s Tommy Bridewell is brimming with confidence after a big points haul at Cadwell’s MCE British Superbike round and believes he is in with a shout at a Showdown place with three races left at Oulton Park.

Bridewell bagged 24 points in Lincolnshire yesterday and the margin to James Ellison who is now back in contention, is 31. Bridewell thinks the ageing GSX-R1000 is one of the best chassis packages in the championship, which is crucial at the Cheshire circuit.

"The results this weekend actually make Brands an even bigger disappointment, because a worst of third in race one there and a top five and maybe even another podium in race two, would have meant we'd be in the Showdown now or very close to it after these results. I'm happy with the way I'm riding, and credit to the team because they've worked really hard to go from a disappointing start to the season to front-runners,” said Bridewell.

“The bike's mega; chassis and setup wise, I think we've got one of the best out there, and you can see that on TV with how late we can brake and the corner speed we're able to carry. I passed people on the outside at the end of the back straight into Park, I'm that confident with the package we have put together. The area we just need to work on is getting out of the corners. But we've now got just three races to make the Showdown.

“It would have been nice to have been on the podium today, and I could have done with beating Peter Hickman in the last race, but we had a lot of Showdown contenders behind us, and hopefully we can get three good results and a bit of good luck at Oulton to get ourselves in there."