A blameless Bridewell is forced to retire from WorldSBK Race 1 at Cremona

Superbike Advocates Racing suffers a DNF in Race 1 after a positive practice and qualifying session.

Saturday at Italy’s Cremona Circuit drew to an unfortunate end for Superbike Advocates Racing, with rider Tommy Bridewell denied a race 1 finish due to a technical problem that was out of the team’s control.

Having made good progress during Friday’s FP2 to finish fifth, Tommy continued to work methodically as this second day of action got underway. Using the morning’s final free practice to test a few minor changes to the setup of his Panigale V4R, Bridewell was able to improve on his best of yesterday by another six tenths to set a 1’28.237.

Less than two hours later, the team was back on track for Superpole. Tommy initially completed two fast laps, the best of which in 1’28.162. After a brief pitstop and change of tyre, the SBK rookie returned to the track. With just over six minutes still on the clock, Bridewell continued to demonstrate consistency but was not quite able to improve on his earlier reference, hindered also by yellow flags in the final stages. He nevertheless qualified in tenth place, earning himself a spot on the fourth row of the grid for the weekend’s first race.

Thanks to his Superpole result, Tommy lined up in tenth place for the weekend’s first full-length, 23-lap SBK race, which ran in the afternoon. Eager to make progress straight off the line, Bridewell unfortunately came into contact with another rider. The British rider did well to avoid a crash, but he did find himself relegated to P18. Quick to react, a resilient Tommy moved back up into the points zone within the first couple of laps. Confident that a patient approach would see him gradually make up ground, Tommy’s work was unfortunately cut short when a mechanical issue forced him to retire from the race on lap nine. An unlucky end to what had been a positive Saturday, with the team now intent on preparing for Sunday’s Superpole race and second SBK race, in which it hopes to be able to make up for today’s unfortunate outcome.

Tommy Bridewell #46

“A tough race for sure. Frustratingly we’d been having a good day in terms of pace, across both FP3 and qualifying. I had a bit of an issue with some chattering but tenth in qualifying was far from disastrous. In the race I was keen to try and make up a few places off the line but unfortunately that resulted in me catching Baldassarri’s back wheel into T2. I’m so glad I didn’t take both of us down, but the contact did push me to almost the back of the field. As soon as that happened, I realised it was going to be a tough one. I knew I needed to be patient and just chip away to try and make gradual progress. I felt that if I did that, the race would come back to me, but in the end a mechanical issue stopped me and that was that. A real shame as my pace was okay and I knew that, if I could find a way past my closest rivals, I’d be able to work my way up. I’m disappointed for the team, but all we can do now is reset and come up with a plan for Sunday’s races.”