Brands BSB Final: Buchan ends on a high

Danny Buchan may have just missed out on the British Superbike Rider’s Cup to Peter Hickman, ending the year in ninth place overall and 11 points adrift of his fellow BMW rider, but two podiums ensured it was a strong final round for the Synetiq-backed rider.

Other than Cadwell Park, where he took two wins and a third, and Oulton Park where he took a trio of top five finishes, Buchan’s found himself battling at the wrong end of the top ten more often than not this season but he again proved on Sunday that, when everything’s right, he’s a match for anyone in the field. Seventh in Saturday’s Sprint race got his weekend underway but Sunday saw him come into his own with a close second to Hickman seeing him just miss out on a third win of the season. He looked on course to take win number three in the final race of the year, leading for three quarters of the race before being overhauled by Glenn and Andrew Irwin. Nevertheless, he was still happy with his weekend’s work. “At the start of the first race on Sunday, I managed to get up to fourth and once there, I was conscious of not using too much tyre,” he said. “I sat in fourth and watched what everyone was doing around me. There was a bit of to-ing and fro-ing with Pete and I doing similar lap times. He was a bit quicker in some areas and I was a bit quicker than others so it was a bit of a stalemate. “It was a bit similar in the final race too and I didn’t really want to lead. I felt comfortable in second at the beginning and wanted to stay there and save tyre but before I knew it, I was leading. I wanted to up the pace in the later stages but we didn’t have as much pace as the others. “We led for long periods today, but I just didn’t have enough in the end to take the win.