BSB Cadwell Round 8
British Super Bikes Round 8
Cadwell Park
The British Super Bikes riders arrived in Lincolnshire for round 8 of the championship last weekend to do battle around the rolling hills of Cadwell Park. PistonClick had 5 photographers out for this event and at one point all in a line at Hall Bends. To be fair it is one of the best spots to get up close to the action and it was interesting to see the different results we achieved.
Meeting up on a wet Friday at the Cadwell Café we had a chat about what we wanted to get out of the weekend and to form a plan of attack. I knew the guys would want to shoot the stars of BSB and get the iconic shots of them jumping the mountain.
You can't have a photographic report of BSB at Cadwell without a Mountain shot, it's just not done, so here you are.
Since we at PistonClick are set up to promote and showcase photographer of all abilities it seemed only right that we spread the love to the riders as well for this report.
There are a lot of racers and teams based in Lincolnshire or have a connection with the county. So for this report we will be looking at some of the local riders competing on their home ground as well as covering the main event.
Peter Hickman is first up and probably doesn't need much of an introduction. He is the fastest road racer in the world, establishing himself at the Isle of Man TT as one of the favourites of the fans for his high speeds round the 36 miles; he holds the lap record for the island circuit.
A road race regular, he has just completed an incredible seven wins at the Ulster Grand Prix. Riding the Smith BMW1000RR on the short circuit of Cadwell he picked up a pair of 5th places and is now 7th in the Championship standings.
Lee Jackson rides a Kawasaki ZX10-RR for FS3 Racing in the National Superstock 1000 series and looks to have secured third place in this year's Championship after a good run of form. The Skellingthorpe man came in second last time out at Thruxton but was not to replicate that podium at his home track.
Jackson won this race last year and set the lap record for Cadwell Park, but misjudging an overtaking maneouver, he went down and damaged his foot in the subsequent crash. Hopefully he will be ok for the next round.
The Neave brothers also compete in the National Superstock 1000 race series. Tom #68 rides for the Louth-based Honda Racing team and Tim rides for Morello Racing Kawasaki. The twins are from Lincolnshire farming stock, originally learning to ride around the farm on field bikes where they were spotted by Pete Boost who lives in the same village.
Pete is a multi talented rider who has competed in most two wheel sports from the IoM TT to Flat Tracking. This is the sport he introduced the brothers to, and both were to become Junior Flat Track Champions, going on to many successes in the oval world of racing.
Moving onto circuit events they both now compete on the 1000cc SuperStock bikes and still do a bit of flat tracking. Tom was to finish third at Cadwell, his best result of the year. He is now in 5th place in the championship.
Tim #28 is in 15th place in the championship after the weekends racing. Qualifying in 11th place on the Saturday he moved up to complete the Sunday race in 7th, also his best result so far this year.
Another pair of brothers competing at the weekend were Matt and Harry Trulove. Matt riding the Raceways Yamaha which acts as a satellite squad to McAMS Yamaha and carries similar livery to the full factory bikes of MacKenzie and O'Hallaran.
Riding the number 59 machine and competing in the British Super Bike he ended up 17th in the first race and 20th in race two.
Harry Truelove, number 44, is riding in the British Supersport 600cc championship. He was 7th in race one, and 5th in race two, riding another Yamaha for Trulove Property and Construction.
Harry has been on form this season, he has failed to score points in only one race so far this year, but has yet to get a podium, coming home 4th on numerous occasions which mirrors his 4th place in this competitive Championship.
Andrew Irwin is not a Yellowbelly (colloquial term for someone from Lincolnshire). He is an Ulsterman, but rides for the Louth-based Honda Racing team. Last time out he got his maiden BSB win at Thruxton. This time he managed a 9th place in the first race, then a DNF when he took out Scott Redding, the championship leader, in race two.
He also got a grid penalty, having accumulated 5 penalty points including the incident with Redding and will start at the back of the grid for the next round at Oulton Park.
He is sitting in 6th place in the championship in front of Hickman by 1 point. Crashing out was a massive blow to Irwin as the Showdown Title Fighter decider is fast approaching and Hickman is hot on his heels.
The BSB Championship points system is set out to ensure no one can secure the championship early in the racing season. Each race has the standard scoring system of 25 points for a win 20 for second, decreasing the further down the list you are.
Once we get to the Showdown races it's just the top six riders that compete for the title of BSB champion. This is why it's vital to get that top six spot as the rest are riding for honours only, and the race win of course.
The top six riders in the championship are now fighting it out for the title over the final three events. The top six get 500 bonus points, plus extra points for each podium position they obtain; 5 for a win, 3 for a second, and 1 for a third.
The standard points scoring is still in place for the Showdown races, with all points scored from the final seven races counting towards the total to determine the Champion for 2019.
So let's look at some of the racing. There are 6 support race series at every Bennetts British Superbike Championship meeting. Dickies British Supersport / British GP2, Cup Ducati Performance TriOptions Cup, HEL Performance British Motostar, Molson Group British Sidecars, Pirelli National Superstock 1000 with Black Horse and the Pirelli National Superstock 600.
In the Pirelli National Superstock 1000 its Richard Cooper on bike 47 the Buildbase Suzuki who is the championship pace setter. He has a lead of 35 points over Taylor MacKenzie and 132.5 points over Lincolnshires own Lee Jackson on the Kawasaki.
Cooper went on to win the race and managed to stay away from the carnage behind him, with Taylor MacKenzie in second and Tom Neave in third.
In the Pirelli National Superstock 600 with Black Horse it's Jack Kennedy who has a lead of 53 points over Brad Jones with Alastair Seeley in third 68 points behind the leader.
In the main event it was a dramatic weekend with a change at the top. Coming into Cadwell, Scott Redding was leading the championship, having a good run of wins with his team mate Josh Brookes hot on his heels.
However, Redding is in his first season of BSB racing having come from MotoGP. The tracks he is now racing on are new to him and very different to the wide sweeping MotoGP circuits. This means he is on a steep learning curve this year, but to give him credit he is mastering the tight twisty UK tracks.
When I arrived on Sunday for race day Redding, O'Halloran and Mackenzie were in the Monster energy tent doing a signing event for the fans. Redding was in fine form jumping up on the table and leading the singing when Sweet Caroline was played.
Considering this was just over an hour before the race start, one of our great British poets, the Honorable D Rascal esquire sums it up well, "Bonkers".
Race one saw Josh Brookes on pole, with a resurgent Bradley Ray on the Build Base Suzuki in second, and Tommy Bridewell on the silver Ducati completing the front row.
During the warm up lap disaster struck for Bradley Ray when his bike just stopped.
With a gap on the front row, Danny Buchan on the Kawasaki had a great start from the second row and came through to take second behind Brookes. After some close racing Buchan would take Brookes for the win with Tommy Bridewell in third.
The Race two grid positions are determined by the lap times from race one, fastest lap no matter when you set it during the previous race gets pole position. Tommy Bridwell was P1 with Redding in P2 and Buchan on P3. Brookes, Hickman and Christian Iddon made up row two.
As previously mentioned, Andrew Irwin took out the championship leader on lap two after a mad lunge up the inside of Redding. This left Redding fuming, facing off with Irwin on the side of the track. It's not the first time Irwin has taken Redding out so you can appreciate Redding's frustration.
This crash left the two Ducatis of Brookes and Bridwell to do battle round the Mini Nürburgring. If your surname didn’t start with a B it was not going to be your day. First across the line was Brookes with Bridewell in second and race one winner Buchan in third.
Going into the triple header at Oulton Park it is now Brookes who leads the championship 12 points ahead of his team mate Redding, with Bridewell in third. But the big battle will be between Andrew Irwin in 6th place and Peter Hickman in 7th for the final Showdown place.
As there is only one point between them and with Irwin starting on the back of the grid after his penalty for taking out Redding, it's all set up for an exciting weekend over the 6-8th September at the Cheshire circuit.
So, to finish off this report let's cover some of the other action, and there was plenty of it. I pitched up on race day just to enjoy the atmosphere and get a few podium shots to complete our coverage of the Party in the Park. So, armed with my 200-500mm this time with the D7200, I was ready to do some long range sniping of the bubbly being sprayed around.
On my way to get a good location I noticed a good spot near the chicane with good views of Charlies as well, so what the hell, I had my camera let's take some race pictures. It's not a the best location as you are shooting into the sun but as the weather was changeable with some cloud cover I thought I might get a few keepers.
Aaron Silvester, another Lincolnshire lad, is competing in the SuperStock 600. We caught up with Aaron after his dramatic crash at Charlie's which you can see from the chicane banking and he penned up a few words for us.
Well, what a frustrating whirlwind of a weekend at Cadwell Park. I managed to save all the drama for the home round! FP1 I managed 2 laps until I lost the front into Charlies 1, very strange crash from a suspected slow puncture or greasy circuit. The team did an incredible job to get the bike ready for FP2 which turned out to be a difficult session, with inclement weather. This meant the only laps we could do were just to make sure the bike was running well.
It was only during qualifying we were realised I made the wrong choice with settings and tyre choice which left me in 17th on the grid with a lot of work to do. Major changes were made for morning warm up, finishing up P9 on the grid, back to where I wanted to be.
I tried to make the most of the first race lap, 3 bikes abreast into the first corner on the outside attempting to overtake when two riders sat up, taking my left handlebar from me and consequently crashing out.
Gutted is an understatement, to have such a difficult home round...
Andy Reid is next in the flying bikes competition. He rides for the BMW Tyco team who are having a bad run of luck recently. Our favourite BSB rider, Irishman Keith Farmer, who also rides for BMW Tyco is still not fit to ride after a bad crash at Donington.
Christian Iddon his team mate suffered a fractured fibula at Knockhill and was riding with a splint at Snetterton where he was joined in the "I've got a slightly second hand bike for sale" market by Andy Reid who rides in the Super Stock 1000cc class.
This sequence of photos has been cut down. I managed to capture 26 images using a Nikon D7200 handheld matched to a 200-500mm, zoomed out to 400mm at 1/500 of a second ISO 320 f6.3, the distance was a little over 200m away.
Andy limped away from this crash with a damaged ankle and is due to receive treatment over the next few days and will hopefully be ready to race at the next round.
It wasn’t just Andy who was inspecting the grass at Cadwell. Tom Ward did a bit of gardening as well on the Suzuki #2 during the SuperStock 1000 race. Tom was fine and was happy to put the shot up on the internet.
All of the rides have posted these pictures on their Instagram accounts and they have also been used in the press. Sometimes you just get lucky, being in the right place at the right time.
But the luckiest man of the weekend was Korie McGreevy #57 who had a coming together with #22 Eunan McGlinchey.
Avoiding being hit by the following pack in the SuperStock 600 he thought his weekend was over but another crash brought out the red flag and he was able to get back to the pits.
Quick spannering by his team and the Triumph was good to go for the restart. Korie came out like nothing had happened and grabbed third place keeping his title hopes intact. He is now only 17 points behind Championship leader Shane Richardson who finished 7th in the race.
That concludes our coverage of the Cadwell Park Round of British Super Bikes.
My parting shot is great image by Keith Adcock of one of the stars of the future, Ryan Vickers on the RAF Regular and Reserves Kawasaki, who didn’t fall of in the race Per ardua ad astra Ryan "through adversity to the stars" .
You can see more photos taken buy the PistonClick team who were out covering the event at the links below.
If you want to be part of our Motley Crew drop us a line.
Lonely Furrow Photography
Graeme Taylor Images
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