As the halfway point of the season passes, Jack Kennedy leaves Brands Hatch having secured his twenty-third Supersport double victory and his fifth win in the last six races.
The first Bennetts British Superbike race of the day was a disrupted affair after a turn-one incident required a brief safety car period before a separate incident brought out the red flag on lap seven. As a result, it was just a five-lap dash for the opening honours. Having both positioned themselves in the front running positions in the race’s first running, Tommy and Andrew lined up for the restart in second and sixth, whilst Dean Harrison had too made progress and would start in seventeenth.
With Ryan Vickers breaking away at the front, Tommy found himself in a heated battle for second as he was hounded by Kyle Ryde almost from the off. Andrew meanwhile had made a strong start to the race and was chasing down the battling duo ahead as he occupied fourth position. Holding off the attacks of Ryde, Tommy was able to maintain position at the flag to secure a second-place finish and his eleventh visit to the podium this year. Andrew crossed the line in a strong fourth whilst Dean was eighteenth.
In the second BSB race of the day, Andrew’s impressive pace earlier in the day secured him a front row grid slot in third from which he rocketed away from the line and was up into second place for the early stages of the race. Tommy at this stage had to battle hard from fifth on the grid to get away with a quartet of riders fighting for second. Dean by this point had raced through into the points scoring positions after a strong start to the race.
At half race distance, the Honda duo of Andrew and Tommy found themselves nose to toe in fourth and fifth as Iddon and Ryde ahead were beginning to break away. Cutting past his teammate Tommy sensed the duo ahead were stretching a lead and he upped his pace to follow. Personal best sectors and laps followed as Tommy joined a three-way scrap for second. But a repeat podium just wasn’t meant to be for Tommy who crossed the finish line in fourth. Andrew was not far behind in fifth and Dean slipped back from his points position late in the race to finish in nineteenth position.
For Tommy, a pair of seconds and a fourth place finish lift him to the top of the championship standings with a lead of nineteen points whilst Andrew Irwin now occupies ninth position after his string of top six finishes continues.
The spoils of the day though belonged to Jack Kennedy in Supersport. He put on a racing masterclass once more to secure the double and his fifth win of the season. This moves him to just four points adrift of the championship lead. Jack had this to say..
“I was happy to get out in front because I knew I was able to set a really strong pace and see who was able to come with me, I had a feeling that it was only going to be Ben who could. I settled into my rhythm really quickly and tried to break them and got my gap up to 0.6. Then I noticed that the gap was slowly coming back down even though I was maintaining my pace, so I knew that Ben was bridging the gap back to me. At that point, I thought that this wasn’t going to all go my way. He then came past me on the back straight, as he has all weekend, but he made a mistake and I was able to come back past him again. I knew starting the last lap he would try at the end of the back straight and I just had to be ready. I managed to get the drive down Dingle Dell, defend the position and hold it all the way to the line to get the win. Massive thank you to the team, they have been flawless all weekend and we’ve just continued to improve the bike throughout the weekend”
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Photos by Jason Neale and Honda Racing UK
