After a horrendous launch, the Be Wiser Ducati rider dropped down to 10th before a late charge and a drying track allowed him to clinch another win.
From third on the grid, Jason O’Halloran blasted ahead of the pack into the first turn as he got the strongest launch off the start, hitting Druids ahead of Santander Salt TAG man Linfoot and Oxford Ducati’s Bridewell before Linfoot slotted through at Surtees.
Meanwhile, pole sitter Scott Redding, the only man on an intermediate rear tyre with the rest of the pack on wets, dropped to a lowly 17th while his team-mate Josh Brookes, who had started second, slipped down into the fight for 10th.
Back in the lead, Linfoot came under fire from Bridewell as the Devizes rider sliced his way to the front at Druids while Buildbase Suzuki’s Bradley Ray began to have a look at third place as he stalked O’Halloran.
While a scrap ensued for the top six, FS-3 Racing’s Buchan laid a pass on Christian Iddon and Andrew Irwin to move up to fifth just as Ray began to drop out of podium contention, leaving Smith’s BMW man Hickman a clear view of third-placed O’Halloran.
Bridewell continued to lead Linfoot in the fight for first, while O’Halloran could only watch with six seconds between he and the front-runners, but with nine laps to go is chances of a podium looked all but gone as Hickman and Buchan moved through on him to slot into third and fourth.
Way back in the order, after running dead last for the first half of the race, Redding finally moved up a couple of places as Joe Francis retired while the championship leader passed JG Speedfit Kawasaki’s Hector Barbera to move within 14sec of 22nd-placed Shaun Winfield.
At the front, however, it was all change as Linfoot stormed into the lead at the start of lap 15 with a strong launch out of Clearways, but the two were quickly coming under threat from the ensuing trio of Brookes, Hickman and Buchan.
Brookes fired a warning shot as he cut two seconds out of the leading duo and with less than three laps remaining he powered past Bridewell in pursuit of victory.
And despite his best attempts, Linfoot’s winning hopes were all over as Brookes slipped up the inside on the run to Clearways and almost immediately pulled away at the start of the penultimate lap, powering across the line two laps later with almost tow seconds to spare.
Bridewell bagged third to snatch the championship lead while Buchan missed out on a rostrum finish by just over a second.
Hickman took fifth over six seconds clear of Tyco BMW’s Keith Farmer, who held off team-mate Iddon and O’Halloran for sixth.
The brothers Irwin chalked up ninth and tenth as Honda Racing’s Andrew led home factory Kawasaki man Glenn Irwin.
