BSB: Brookes Secures 50th Career Win at Snetterton

Josh Brookes made it two in a row for Vision Track Ducati at Snetterton with a win in Round 5 of the 2020 BSB campaign – his first victory of the season and the 50^th of his career in the class.

The Australian came out top of a close battle with championship leader Glenn Irwin that went on until the final lap. Tommy Bridewell completed the podium in third.

Though the leading quartet was never separated by more than a second, it was a clean race out front, but disaster stroke further back in the field with a controversial clash between Andrew Irwin and Ryan Vickers that ended both their races.

Josh Brookes (Vision Track Ducati) made a great getaway from the front row and beat polesitter Glenn Irwin (Honda Racing) to the holeshot going into Riches. Irwin stroke back immediately though, pulling out of the slipstream to overtake at the Montreal hairpin and led the field over the line for the first time ahead of Brookes and Tommy Bridewell (Oxford Products Racing).

Danny Buchan (Massingberg-Mundy Kawasaki) looked keen to redeem himself after his early crash in Saturday’s race and live up to his promising form in practice and qualifying. Two laps in he had made his way well up the field already, but his race yet again came to a premature end. The Kawasaki rider clipped the rear of Bradley Ray (Synetiq BMW Motorrad) at Agostini, sending himself into the gravel and Ray down the order.

Brookes took the lead on Lap 3 as he lunged down Irwin’s inside at Riches and made the move stick to hold the position. A leading group of five with Brookes, Irwin, Bridewell, Christian Iddon (Vision Track Kawasaki) and Lee Jackson (Massingberg-Mundy Kawasaki) had established out front, but Kyle Ryde (Buildbase Suzuki) was the fastest man on track and reeling them in quickly.

Jackson was running at great pace and executed a move on Iddon at Murrays to perfection to move up into fourth on the end of Lap 4. Matters got worse for Round 4 winner Iddon who found himself under immediate attack from a determined looking Ryde.

Behind them, an intense battle for seventh had evolved between the two McAms Yamahas of Jason O’Halloran and Tarran MacKenzie and Ryan Vickers (RAF Regulars and Reserves Kawasaki). The group was welcoming more company as Andrew Irwin (Honda Racing), who was making his way up the order from the back of the grid, overtook Luke Mossey (Rich Energy OMG Racing) on Lap 8 into 10^th and had his eyes firmly set on the trio ahead of him.

As Irwin edged ever closer, MacKenzie broke away from the group and watched Ryde and Iddon, who struggled to keep up with the pace out front, fall into his clutches. At the start of Lap 10 the Scotsman made his move for sixth and dived down Ryde’s inside at Riches and although Ryde tried everything to hang on to his position, the Yamaha prevailed.

Andrew Irwin looked on form and moved past O’Halloran on Lap 13, the 17^th position he made up in the race, but disaster stroke only a few corners later. Irwin took a wide line through Coram to sweep past the outside of Vickers and though he was ahead of the Kawasaki, he misjudged his advantage and his rear tyre collected Vickers’ front tyre at the entry of Murrays. The contact brought Vickers down and as a result he wiped out Irwin at corner exit. Both riders’ race ended in the gravel while O’Halloran was lucky to escape collateral damage.

The race win meanwhile looked certain to go down between Brookes and Irwin, though they were not able to shake off Bridewell and Jackson. Brookes was riding defensively and Irwin struggled to find a way past. Misjudging an attack, he ran wide into Brundle at the end of Bentley Straight on the final lap and just managed to stay ahead of Bridewell.

Any chance for a further attempt to take the lead was gone and Brookes completed a flawless display to claim his first victory of the 2020 season. Second place was enough for Irwin to hold on to the championship lead, now sitting on 93 points, 13 ahead of Bridewell who fought off Jackson to complete the podium, and another four from Brookes.

Yesterday’s winner Iddon took the chequered flag in a lonely fifth place ahead of Ryde who just got the better of MacKenzie. O’Halloran, Mossey and Ray, who impressively recovered from the early hickup with Buchan, rounded out the top 10.

Peter Hickman (Global Robots BMW) was 11^th from Gino Rea (Buildbase Suzuki) and Jack Kennedy (Santander Salt TAG Racing). Joe Francis (Lyods & Jones Bowker Motorrad) finished 14^th and Alex Olsen (Global Robots BMW) secured the last point on offer in 15^th.