BSB: Mackenzie takes Race of Aces title with Snetterton race 3 win

The third and final race of the Snetterton round of the 2021 British Superbike Championship saw Tarran Mackenzie start from pole position as McAms Yamaha looked to take their third win of the weekend.

The race start was delayed for a problem on the grid for Peter Hickman after the warm up lap. As a result, the #60 had to start from the back of the grid. 

At the front, it was the pole sitter, Mackenzie, who made the holeshot into turn one from Gino Rea and Jason O’Halloran. From early on, a group of five broke away with the two McAms Yamahas of Mackenzie and O’Halloran, as well as the Oxford Products Ducati of Tommy Bridewell, Danny Buchan’s Synetiq BMW and the Buildbase Suzuki of Gino Rea. 

For eight laps, the McAms Yamahas and Bridewell were swapping places inside the top three, while Buchan tried to insert himself into the fray and Rea sat tight in fourth place. 

On lap nine, though, Buchan’s M1000RR let go down the Bentley Straight, pouring fluid onto the rear tyre of Buchan, meaning the #83 was powerless to prevent a high side as he tipped into turn eight. Gino Rea did well to avoid the crash in front of him, but Lee Jackson and Andrew Irwin behind were not as fortunate, as they both also crashed on Buchan’s fluid. 

The red flag was thrown almost immediately so as the oil could be cleaned up, and thankfully all three riders who went down appeared to be okay. 

With just eight laps completed, the race was restarted with the grid positions set from the end of lap eight of the first start, meaning Tommy Bridewell started from pole, with Tarran Mackenzie and Jason O’Halloran completing the front row. The restarted race would run for five laps.

At the restart, it was Mackenzie who made the holeshot ahead of Rea and Bridewell, but O’Halloran made a brilliant move at turn two on the first lap to go from fourth to second. 

The Australian did not last long in second place, though, as Bridewell retaliated in turns eight and nine the first time round, and by the beginning of the second tour the #46 was in the lead.

Bridewell led for two laps before Mackenzie was able to respond, the #85 passing Bridewell at turn four on the fourth and penultimate lap. Mackenzie held that lead onto the last lap, on which he was visibly on the limit to try to get out of range of the Ducati’s power in the straight. 

Bridewell stayed close enough, though, to pass into turn nine on the final lap, but he ran wide and allowed Mackenzie to cut back on the exit. Through the penultimate corner, Bridewell and his Ducati could not match the corner speed of Mackenzie’s Yamaha, and despite the power advantage of the Panigale V4R compared to the YZF-R1, Mackenzie held the lead to the line to take his second win of the weekend, his fourth of the season, and to become the winner of the 2021 Race of Aces. 

There was no shame for Bridewell in finishing second; the McAms team have got their R1s working brilliantly this year, and Mackenzie put together a pretty special final lap in his attempts to get away from Bridewell. Nonetheless, it will bring some frustration to the #46 to have run at the front in all three races in Snetterton but to have also missed the victory on all three occasions. 

Jason O’Halloran was about as uncompetitive as he has been all season in the restart, and yet he managed to secure third place and add another podium credit. Behind him, Gino Rea was a season best fourth, ahead of Christian Iddon, Josh Brookes, Peter Hickman, Dan Linfoot, Brad Ray and Kyle Ryde who completed the top 10. 

Glenn Irwin was 11th, ahead of Andrew Irwin who came from last on the grid to 12th; while Ryan Vickers finished 13th ahead of Luke Stapleford and Rory Skinner. 

Dean Harrison finished 16th, ahead of Takumi Takahashi and Bjorn Estment, who was the final finisher in 18th.