British Super Bikes - Round Five - Brands Hatch

BSB Images by Olithephoto 

22 - 24 July 2022

Six months ago Taz Mackenzie packed his bags and headed out to Cartagena in southern Spain for pre-season training at what was supposed to be valuable track time get him up to speed for his defence of the BSB 2021 Championship.

Going down at turn one and breaking his left ankle was not part of the plan, then breaking the other ankle at the April BSB test at Silverstone put his Championship bid on hold for some time with him missing the first few rounds.   

Fast forward to last weekend's round five meeting of this year's BSB championship at Brands Hatch and Taz announced his return to full fitness by pushing his team mate Jason O'Halloran all the way in race one to finish second.

Race two and three confirmed that Taz is back and riding as well as he did at the end of last season, taking the final two races in P1, and that he is back and hungry to defend his title and get back to winning ways.

In race two and three Jason O'Halloran battled hard with his team mate Mackenzie swapping the lead, and had to settle for second place in both races, but gained valuable championship points and now leads Bradley Ray in second by 10 points. 

Ray was on the front row in P3 after qualifying and as third fastest overall in the first race, and made the front row for the next two races by putting in very fast lap times.

However, when it came to racing he didn’t string those fast laps together and ended up with a hat-trick of fourth places. Ray had put in a personal best time around Brands during the free practice sessions, demonstrating that the pace at the front is so close this year. 

The surprise of the meeting was Glenn Irwin, crashing out in race one and a mid-table tenth in race two, he got back on the podium in race three to announce his return to form. This was the first time this season he has tasted the champagne since his hat-trick of wins at the opening round at Silverstone.

Tommy Bridewell also made a welcome return to the bottom step on the podium in race one and two, dropping down to fifth in race three.

If Bridewell was going to chalk up some much needed championship points for the showdown, then Brands Hatch was the track he was going to do it on.

Recording five second places last year for the 2021 championship runner up gives you a clue that Tommy likes Brands, and it showed as he knuckled down but just couldn’t get past the Yamahas of Mackenzie and O'Halloran.   

Irwin and Bridewell returning to form and getting on to the podium was great for the championship but were overshadowed, in my opinion, by the amazing return of the 2019 Pirelli National Superstock 1000 Champion Richard Cooper.

Coopes has been slowly returning to fitness and competitive racing for a while now after a nasty crash stopped his racing a few years ago. As it says on the back of his helmet "back by popular demand" his fans were thrilled to see him back on track at Malory, Cadwell, Darley Moor and the North west 200.

At Brands he returned to the Superstock class last weekend on a 2019 BuildBase Suzuki GSX-R, recording a second place 0.192secs behind Billy McConnell in a shortened red flagged race one. In race two it went the full 15 laps with Coopes going one better, beating David Allingham by 0.056 at the chequered flag for the top spot on the podium. 

True Heroes Racing - Images by Paul Hallam

There was a full race card as always at Brands, with our adopted race team for 2022, the True Heroes fielding riders in the Tri-Options Ducati Cup and the SuperSport race. 

#15 Leon Wilton and #44 Charlie White qualified in 25th & 27th respectively in the Tri-Options Ducati Cup.

Unfortunately #89 Chris Ganley didn't make the grid, being just outside the required time recording a fastest lap of 1:41.513. Not a bad time as it was Chris’s first visit to the Grand Prix circuit at Brands Hatch and he has gained valuable experience and data for when the team return later in the year. 

In race one Charlie White finished in 21st place setting a fastest lap of 1:35.379, but Leon Wilton was involved in an incident at Druids corner forcing him wide onto the grass which resulted in damage to the front of the bike, ending his race. In race two Charlie was 20th and Leon 21st.

In the Stock 1000cc #22 Dave MacKay came in 26th with #61 Dave Sellers recording a DNF after having problems with his bike in this red flagged race. In race two which went full distance, a fast pace was set from the start by all of the stocker racers, with Sellers and MacKay setting their fastest race laps of the weekend at 1:30.387 and 1:31.749 respectively, finishing 27th and 28th.

A True Heroes Associate Rider who helps to promote the team to up and coming racers is Harrison Mackay, riding in the Honda British Talent Cup. Mackay had a very solid weekend, qualifying for race one in 9th and finishing 6th with a faster time than qualifying, moving him up the grid for race two.

Starting in P8 he ran with the best of them in this close competitive class, finally crossing the line in P8. Harrison will be out with the Honda British Talent Cup at the British MotoGP at Silverstone 5 - 7 Aug. 

Image credit Olithephoto