Bridewell puts in a strong qualifying and scores points in a challenging Race 1 at Misano

Bridewell qualifies inside the top ten before working hard to bank more championship points in the first of the weekend’s WorldSBK races.

With very high temperatures making for challenging conditions at Italy’s Misano World Circuit today, Superbike Advocates Racing rider Tommy Bridewell completed the first of the weekend’s WorldSBK races with another positive points finish.

Saturday began with a short practice, which gave rider and crew a chance to verify the technical setup of their Panigale V4R ahead of Superpole. Though the session was briefly interrupted with a red flag following an incident for another rider, Tommy maximized the track time and put in his best lap of all the practice sessions combined (1’33.270).

It was soon time for Superpole, the brief 15-minute qualifying that establishes positions on the Race 1 starting grid. A chaotic start brought two incidents for other riders, while Bridewell’s first lap times were cancelled after he exceeded track limits. Tommy returned to the garage mid-session to switch tyres, before returning to the track with just over 6 minutes still on the clock. Yet to complete a valid lap and knowing that time was very much of the essence, the talented rider immediately put in a 1’32.584 but then suffered a crash through Turn 2 moments later. Unhurt, he was able to return to the garage but damage to the bike prevented him from utilizing the final minutes of the session. Tommy’s sole lap time put him in ninth position, a strong result considering the setbacks.

Ninth in qualifying made for a third row start for Race 1, which got underway mid-afternoon. Finding himself boxed in through the first turn, Bridewell slipped to sixteenth. The Superbike Advocates Racing rider soon worked his way up into the points zone, positioned towards the back of a very large and tightly packed chasing group. Lying fourteenth mid-way through this 21-lapper, the Brit made up one more position in the final stages to finish the first of the weekend’s three races in thirteenth position.

Tommy Bridewell #46

“A difficult race for sure. Qualifying was positive and I was happy with my time, particularly considering I only got one lap in and did it on my own. But I’m disappointed with the race result, which doesn’t reflect our true position. I didn’t make a bad start, but I got boxed in on both the right and left; everyone came by me and to be honest, I got stuck. I was struggling with a few things on the bike too. So, a tough one but if this is what I’d class as one of our worst races so far, then I guess we’re not in such a disastrous position. We are going to have tough weekends of course, and I suspected Misano would be one of those, as I have so little track knowledge. But we still have tomorrow, so we’ll study the data this evening and see if we can make improvements. I think my pace can be good if I make a good start to the Superpole race, so we definitely need to come out firing tomorrow.”