McAMS Yamaha’s Tarran Mackenzie has taken the opening Bennetts British Superbike race win at Silverstone this afternoon, crossing the line one tenth ahead of Kyle Ryde with Jason O’Halloran in third.
But fourth place for Glenn Irwin saw the Honda Racing rider extend his lead at the top of the championship standings to 30 points as Tommy Bridewell could only manage tenth after starting from the back of the grid on the Oxford Products Racing Ducati.
It was pole setter Danny Buchan who grabbed the holeshot on the Rapid Fulfillment Kawasaki but he was soon overhauled by the Honda pairing of Andrew and Glenn Irwin with O’Halloran also moving ahead of the Kent man.
Andrew Irwin led until the fifth lap when Glenn moved ahead and he soon stretched his advantage to 0.8s as Andrew came under pressure from O’Halloran, Ryde and Mackenzie with Christian Iddon the leading Ducati rider in sixth. Team-mate and front row man Josh Brookes had slipped back to ninth with Bridewell already up to 15th.
Lap 10 saw Mackenzie move up to third as just one second covered the top six but three laps later it was unlucky lap 13 for Andrew Irwin as he ran off track at the end of the back straight, dropping all the way back to eighth.
Mackenzie set a lap of 53.471s to move up to second and on lap 16 he hit the front for the first time, promptly opening up a small gap over the pursuing pack. Brookes had recovered to sixth but lap 18 saw the recovering Andrew Irwin overtake both Ducatis to move up to fifth.
With five laps to go, Mackenzie had a near one-second lead over Irwin but Ryde moved up to second on lap 22 with O’Halloran following suit a lap later, aided by a new lap record of 53.342s.
They immediately began to eat into Mackenzie’s lead to set up a thrilling final lap but he was able to hold off Ryde by just 0.105s to repeat his Silverstone victory from 2019.
Ryde secured his first ever BSB podium in second, after impressing at the first two rounds, with O’Halloran close behind in third. Irwin, meanwhile, held on for fourth ahead of brother Andrew with Brookes taking an eventual sixth.
He was just ahead of Lee Jackson with Iddon holding on to eighth from Buchan and Bridewell whose six points were enough to hold onto second in the championship after seven races.
