Tarran Mackenzie celebrated his third victory of the Bennetts British Superbike Championship season, claiming Yamaha their first win at Snetterton since 2012, following an intense final lap in the opening BikeSocial Race 1. Just 0.866s covered an incredibly close top five after the 12-lap encounter.
At the start of the race, Glenn Irwin pulled an impressive move around the outside of Tarran Mackenzie to lead the pack out of Riches with Andrew Irwin holding third.
Christian Iddon crashed out of the action at Oggies on the opening lap unhurt, which now means he has lost two positions in the overall standings, dropping to fourth in the fight for the top eight.
At the front, Glenn Irwin was desperately trying to break the pack as Jason O’Halloran carved his way through into second place by lap four. A lap later though and Glenn Irwin crashed out at Oggies as the Honda Fireblade cartwheeled out of contention.
That left O’Halloran leading the pack ahead of his McAMS Yamaha teammate Mackenzie with Tommy Bridewell, Lee Jackson and Josh Brookes in the leading five positions.
On the eighth lap, Mackenzie made his move at Agostini to push his Australian rival back into second with Bridewell in close contention.
Brookes meanwhile was embroiled in a fierce battle with Jackson as the pair traded positions throughout the closing stages.
As the pack continued to close, Mackenzie was able to defend hard, but it was disappointment for O’Halloran as he got drafted to the chequered flag by Bridewell with just 0.026s separating them in second and third.
Brookes equalled his best result of the season in fourth, but was just 0.559s adrift of the win – the closest he has been this season on the VisionTrack Ducati, with Jackson completing the top five for FS-3 Racing Kawasaki.
Ryan Vickers held on to sixth place at his home round for the RAF Regular & Reserve Kawasaki team ahead of Peter Hickman as the pair broke away from Rory Skinner.
Bradley Ray and Danny Buchan completed the top ten with five race now remaining to decide the eight Title Fighters in the Showdown.
Bennetts British Superbike Championship, Snetterton, BikeSocial Race 1:
- Tarran Mackenzie (McAMS Yamaha)
- Tommy Bridewell (Oxford Products Racing Ducati) +0.069s
- Jason O’Halloran (McAMS Yamaha) +0.095s
- Josh Brookes (VisionTrack Ducati) +0.559s
- Lee Jackson (FS-3 Racing Kawasaki) +0.866s
- Ryan Vickers (RAF Regular & Reserve Kawasaki) +6.560s
- Peter Hickman (FHO Racing BMW) +6.855s
- Rory Skinner (FS-3 Racing Kawasaki) +7.832s
- Bradley Ray (Rich Energy OMG Racing BMW) +9.696s
- Danny Buchan (SYNETIQ BMW) +14.732s
Bennetts British Superbike Championship standings after BikeSocial Race 1:
- Jason O’Halloran (McAMS Yamaha) 358
- Tarran Mackenzie (McAMS Yamaha) 248
- Tommy Bridewell (Oxford Products Racing Ducati) 225
- Christian Iddon (VisionTrack Ducati) 223
- Peter Hickman (FHO Racing BMW) 209
- Danny Buchan (SYNETIQ BMW) 171
- Glenn Irwin (Honda Racing) 154
- Lee Jackson (FS-3 Racing Kawasaki) 144
Tarran Mackenzie – McAMS Yamaha
Race 1 winner
“I am definitely happy with that! I was happy following Glenn at the start with Jason behind, because I knew we had good pace in practice, but the tyre was wearing a lot.
“When Jason came by, we had a gap to fourth place, so I sat behind him. Then when Glenn crashed, I was happy following Jason, but when the gap started to come down I wanted to take the lead in case something happened.
“There are a lot of passing opportunities here and I didn’t want to get involved in that. I got to the front and rode my own race, I didn’t set an outstanding pace, I was just comfortable and managing the tyre.
“On the last lap I wanted to push harder and bridged maybe one or two bike lengths, which was enough for them not to be able to come back on me.
“I made a mistake on the last corner, running wide on the entry and then had a big wheelie on the exit. I shut my eyes and got to the line to take another win, another double McAMS Yamaha podium.
“It’ll be tricky starting on the third row here tomorrow, but I’m quite strong in some areas, so if we can do some passing on the first few laps and then try not to use too much tyre. I prefer the longer races, so we’ll do some homework tonight and come out swinging tomorrow.”
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