Iddon hindered by tyre trouble
AFTER the euphoria of a first BSB victory at Snetterton, it was a frustrating weekend for Christian Iddon, as the Visiontrack Ducati rider suffered with tyre issues as the Bennetts British Superbike Championship visited Silverstone in Northamptonshire.
A shortened Qualifying session after an incident at Copse Corner left Iddon down in thirteenth place for the opening race of the weekend.
Hard charging Iddon ran as high as fifth place in the first encounter of the weekend, and despite dropping to eighth place three laps from the end, he defended admirably from the challenge of five riders covered by a little over a second at the flag.
Speaking to Visiontrack Ducati, Iddon said; “I felt pretty good from my poor grid position and for the first part of the race I was running with the front bunch and was in a good position. It’s where I felt I should have been and then we encountered some issues which we’d not had all weekend, but they decided to rear their ugly head and I struggled massively. I was hoping to get a fifth place at worst but had one or two other issues in the final stages and I was lucky to finish.”
Starting eleventh in Race Two Christian had a blistering first lap, climbing to seventh place and running as high as sixth.
But problems late on in the race left him struggling for grip,eventually finishing thirteenth as they crossed the line.
Christian would start Race Three from 8th on the grid, proving his pace as he climbed to second by half race distance, but late race problems reoccurred and Iddon would eventually claim seventh as the chequered flag flew.
“It’s been a very tough weekend for me. The problems we had didn’t occur until the first race yesterday which was going OK until we had a technical issue with the tyre, and I was lucky to finish. The opening race today was horrendous with another couple of problems including another tyre issue so going into the third and final race, I wasn’t feeling confident at all. I tried a different strategy and it was a positive step but with three laps to go, the problems reoccurred, and I got mugged by three or four people. I came here with high hopes and our results didn’t reflect that, so we learn from it and move on”, said Christian.
The BSB Championship now head for Iddon’s ‘home’ round, Oulton Park in Cheshire, over the weekend of the 18-20 September.
Elsewhere, Stockport’s Ben Luxton kept up his title charge in the Pirelli National Superstock 600 Championship. The JR Performance Racing rider finishing fourth in a race decided by the narrowest of margins – the top five covered by less than a second at the flag.
Luxton said; “After Starting out so strong in Friday Practice, lapping under the lap record, I came across a few issues in Qualifying and ended up second.
Starting the Race on Sunday I knew I had to push from the start as it was going to be hard managing tyre wear later on in the Race. I got out in front off the start and had a good gap until lap five I was pushed wide dropping back to ninth. I managed to catch the leading group back up and cross the line fourth.
Silverstone is now behind us and looking forward to heading to my home round at Oulton park in two weeks time and aim to extend my Championship lead.”