Honda Racing starts strongly at Assen
AssenSix years after the Bennetts British Superbike Championship (BSB) last ventured to the Netherlands, Honda Racing has been in the thick of the action at TT Circuit Assen.
Tommy Bridewell opened his account by maintaining a presence among the top five BSB runners throughout Friday’s two Free Practice sessions. The former BSB champion represents Honda Racing on a single Fireblade at Assen, while team-mate Andrew Irwin recovers from surgery after crashing out of the previous round.
After ending Saturday morning’s FP3 in fifth, and comfortably making it through to the pole position shootout, Bridewell eventually claimed ninth position on the grid for Race 1.
Torrential rain then began to fall as the contenders were lining up on the grid. Honda Racing had pre-empted that decision and sent Bridewell out on wet settings, allowing him to ride comfortably in the lead pack until visibility issues forced him into the pits.
Soon afterwards the race was red-flagged due to the weather conditions. The grid reformed for a six-lap sprint to the finish with Bridewell rejoining on the back row, but the conditions worsened during the warm-up lap and the result was declared.
“It’s been a really refreshing start to the weekend. For me, it’s just been working through the process of a normal weekend in a nice manner. We’ve kept calm and we’ve had good race pace. We weren’t able to get enough out of the rear tyre over a single lap in qualifying compared to our competitors, but we can improve on that. Our race pace is brilliant in the dry and I think we’ve got some ideas for tomorrow, when the first five laps of the race need a big push, and that’s really our problem area. In the wet we were on the grid with full wets and ready to go, the bike felt great at the start, I was really happy with everything, but within two laps my visor started letting in water. I just couldn’t see anything at 140 mph at the back of the circuit; couldn’t see 10 feet in front of me. Never in my life did I ever feel that I’d get to that point, but just down to safety I felt like I had to pit. It breaks me to say it because I just can’t believe I’d ever be in that position. It’s extremely frustrating when the team gave me a bike that’s perfectly capable of fighting for the podium, and I felt really good on it, but it was like trying to ride with one eye closed. We thought that we might get another stab at it, so I duct-taped the whole helmet up, and I was confident of being able to get back through the field, but the red flag was the correct decision on safety grounds.”
“It’s been a really refreshing start to the weekend. For me, it’s just been working through the process of a normal weekend in a nice manner. We’ve kept calm and we’ve had good race pace. We weren’t able to get enough out of the rear tyre over a single lap in qualifying compared to our competitors, but we can improve on that. Our race pace is brilliant in the dry and I think we’ve got some ideas for tomorrow, when the first five laps of the race need a big push, and that’s really our problem area. In the wet we were on the grid with full wets and ready to go, the bike felt great at the start, I was really happy with everything, but within two laps my visor started letting in water. I just couldn’t see anything at 140 mph at the back of the circuit; couldn’t see 10 feet in front of me. Never in my life did I ever feel that I’d get to that point, but just down to safety I felt like I had to pit. It breaks me to say it because I just can’t believe I’d ever be in that position. It’s extremely frustrating when the team gave me a bike that’s perfectly capable of fighting for the podium, and I felt really good on it, but it was like trying to ride with one eye closed. We thought that we might get another stab at it, so I duct-taped the whole helmet up, and I was confident of being able to get back through the field, but the red flag was the correct decision on safety grounds.”