Tommy Bridewell leads the Bennetts British Superbike Championship into this weekend’s fifth round of the season at Snetterton and the BeerMonster Ducati rider is biding to extend his eight point advantage at the top of the standings.
Bridewell has celebrated a single victory this season, but a tally of seven podium finishes, six of which were second places, has rocketed him ahead of Kyle Ryde and teammate Glenn Irwin at the top of the standings ahead of this weekend.
Bridewell claimed a pair of second place finishes at Knockhill after bouncing back from a tough opening day at the Scottish track and believes this weekend could be when he returns to the top step of the podium.
Bridewell said: “Knockhill was a strong weekend, I think to be honest Friday was really tough and I didn’t have a good feeling with the bike and the track. I felt like it was going to be quite a tough weekend so after Friday I said to myself ‘this is where I need to be able to turn the weekend around, I can’t have a bad weekend’.
“I think between myself and the team we really put our head down and worked out really exactly where I was riding incorrect, where the bike was incorrect, and it was a good mix of 50-50. I wasn’t riding properly for the circuit, so it was obviously nice to be able to recognise that and for the team to get the bike to help me with that as well.
“I think to be able to come out of Knockhill with the results that we did, after obviously in truth, a poor qualifying which hampered us in the first race, but then also hampered us for the second race as I wasn’t able to make the strongest lap times. So to start from tenth in race one, and ninth in race two, but to still come away with two podiums was a real big bonus.
“I think Knockhill was probably one of our strongest weekends up until now really which was good. Now going into Snetterton I am just full of confidence in all honesty. I am riding with a lot of confidence and going somewhere where I know the bike thrives let’s say. The one thing we do need to keep an eye on is tyre life and just see what the conditions and temperatures are like. I am really looking forward to Snetterton as we are coming back into circuits now that we expect to fight for the wins. At Knockhill I didn’t know where we would fare up, but at Snetterton I expect to be fighting from the start.”