Brands BSB: Iddon ‘battered but still in the Showdown hunt’

Christian Iddon’s British Superbike visit to Brands Hatch was never going to be easy after suffering an arm injury on his Buildbase Suzuki last time out.

The Stockport rider admitted he wasn’t yet 100 per cent heading into round five at the Kent track but two crashes across the weekend left him further battered and bruised. Despite the falls, the 37-year-old went on to collect 10th and 11th place finishes in two of the weekend’s three races - the latter after an impressive fightback from 24th on the grid in the final bout.

“This weekend was always going to be difficult,” Iddon acknowledged. “In FP1 I just got through it but started loosening up in the second session before another crash.

“I hit the wall pretty hard and battered myself about a bit and wasn’t feeling it Saturday and was off the pace. We started 16th but managed to climb to 10th in race one which wasn’t too bad, all things considered.

“I made a mistake in race two and missed a downshift,” he explained. “I looked at the dash and I was in third and not second so I rolled around the corner, ready to backshift after I’d got round but I didn’t realise the bike had dropped into neutral so as I knocked it back a gear it went into first and it just came round on me and dumped me down. It meant we had a poor grid for race three, and started 24th.

“It was never going to be easy so to finish 11th, I was reasonably happy with that. It’s points, at least, and keeps us in the hunt for the final Showdown spot. There are nine races to go until it’s decided so we’ll keep pushing on.”