The opening race in this year’s British Superbike Championship Showdown will see Tyco BMW riders Michael Laverty and Tommy Bridewell start from the second and third rows respectively, at Assen in the Netherlands tomorrow [Sunday].
Laverty produced the form that we know he is capable of, posting a fine fourth place in qualifying and is confident of taking at least one podium finish tomorrow on the Tyco BMW Motorrad S1000RR.
Tommy Bridewell suffered the loss of valuable track time after taking the decision to make some major adjustments to his Tyco BMW S1000RR. But after digging deep in the all-important qualifying sessions, the Wiltshire racer will start from ninth place for tomorrow’s opening 18-lap race.
Michael Laverty: “It’s been a nice weekend for me so far at Assen because I moaned to the team a little bit after Oulton Park and fair play to them, they’ve pulled out all the stops. From the very first practice I’ve finally found that feeling I’ve been chasing all year. We had damp track right up until qualifying but I knew the feeling was there in the bike that I could do something this weekend. P4 is not the front row that we wanted, but we’ve a new swingarm in and it’s taken a little time to dial in but it’s working and has improved the package. For me there’s more to come from the Tyco BMW package, so that’s another positive. I’ve been able to do the times consistently, which bodes well for Sunday’s two races. I’m looking ahead with confidence.”
Tommy Bridewell: “The weekend has been difficult for sure; there’s no point telling any lies. We basically lost Friday and we could have done with this morning being dry, but obviously weather conditions were very mixed. We went into qualifying knowing it was our first true dry session, so in that sense I’m happy-ish to end up where I am. It’s not ideal losing a Friday going into the Showdown, but we will just have to see what we can do tomorrow and push hard to run with the front guys.”
Philip Neill – Team Manager: “There’s no hiding the fact that it has been a day of contrasting fortunes for our riders. Michael has shown consistency since the opening sessions and is happy with the set-up on his Tyco BMW S1000RR, so we are hoping for some good results from him tomorrow. Tommy on the other hand has struggled to find a set-up that he’s comfortable with, but dug deep to make the final qualifying session and the third row for race one is certainly no disaster.”
Qualifying results
Front Row: Josh Brookes [Yamaha] 1:35.971s; James Ellison [Kawasaki] 1:36.346s; John Hopkins [Ducati] 1:36.463s
Second Row: Michael Laverty [Tyco BMW] 1:36.823s; Shane Byrne [Kawasaki] 1:37.005s; Danny Buchan [Kawasaki] 1:37.010s
Third Row: Luke Mossey [Kawasaki] 1:37.292s; Jack Kennedy [Kawasaki] 137.315s; Tommy Bridewell [Tyco BMW] 1:37.772s
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