Positive start at Donington Park for Iddon
IT was a strong start in the British Superbike Championship for Stockport’s Christian Iddon, as the Series visited Donington Park, in Leicestershire, for the opening two rounds of the 2017 season.
Iddon took a podium in Race One, missing out narrowly on making it a double in Race Two.
Iddon ran strongly during Free Practice One, aboard his Tyco BMW, finishing just seven-tenths of a second off the fastest time set
Although struggling during FP2 with an electrical fault – former Super Moto Champion Iddon only got to set two flying laps – he still managed to get to within six-tenths of the quickest time of Leon Haslam on his Kawasaki.
Saturday brought rain for the final Free Practice session of the weekend, so little could be taken from the times overall. Iddon showed the bikes potential in the wet, however, by claiming third fastest, leaving him confident should the weather turn during the rest of the British summertime.
The afternoon’s Qualifying session had to be cancelled due to an incident on circuit, leaving grids for the following days first Race set from aggregate times of all three Practice sessions.
It didn’t do Christian any favours, however, as FP2, where Iddon had completed the fewest number of laps, turned out to be the quickest. It left the former World Superbike rider in tenth spot, of the twentyseven riders.
Iddon made a great start to Race One, climbing to fifth place on the opening lap. Despite dropping a place two laps later, Iddon, confident of his tyres, climbed to fourth behind Peter Hickman [BMW] and claimed the final podium spot with two laps remaining.
The Tyco BMW rider made another good start to Race Two, grabbing one place from seventh on the grid, on the opening lap.
Again, conserving tyres, Iddon climbed as high as third with two laps to go, but it was Glenn Irwin [Ducati], who had looked after his tyres particularly well, who nicked third place on the final lap of the Race.
“It’s been a positive start to the season” said Christian. “We’ve claimed a strong points haul, and we’re ready to carry on. We’re on the short circuit [next time out, at Brands Hatch], so times will be ridiculously close. It [Brands] wasn’t my best circuit last year, but we’ll do our best to change that.”