Tom Neave and the Honda Racing UK team secured his best-ever finish aboard the CBR1000RR-R Fireblade SP in the first Bennetts British Superbike feature race of the weekend with a fighting eighth-place finish.
Tom turned around what was a frustrating weekend to start with into his best performance in the championship series to date, with a determined ride and a never give up attitude. He started the race from twentieth place on the grid and set about pushing forwards with fast and consistent lap times. At the time of the safety car on lap thirteen, he was running in thirteenth and closing in on those in front of him.
As the race resumed with five laps to run, the riders had bunched together and Tom seized his opportunities to rise another five places resulting in his eighth-place finish, a remarkable twelve places higher than his qualifying position.
Andrew Irwin’s difficult weekend continued with a lap two crash at the Old Hairpin causing his second DNF of the event.
For the final race of the weekend, riders Tom and Andrew would start the race from twelfth and seventeenth respectively. Tom would finish the race with another points-scoring ride to fourteenth after a moment on the brakes dropped him back to twentieth at one point.
Andrew meanwhile launched off the line and gained several positions in the early laps to run as high as twelfth before he was involved in an almost identical incident to the Sprint race the day prior. Andrew was declared at fault for the incident, which he does not dispute. He was awarded three penalty points and has a three-place grid penalty at the next race. He will look to refocus ahead of the next round at Knockhill.
The team now heads back to the roads for this year’s Isle of Man TT races, 29th May – 10th June, before returning to BSB for the next round at Knockhill, 16th – 18th June.
#68 Tom Neave
A weekend of two halves really after race one yesterday but it was one of those things. In race two I never expected to get my best result from twentieth on the grid. I did my fastest-ever lap of the weekend, which was close to the old lap record, which even though everyone else has gone a second quicker is still better than a smack in the gob! With that in mind, I was confident I could progress again in race three. Unfortunately, I made a bit of a mistake in the middle of the race at the final corner and ran onto the grass which dropped me to the back and I had to fight up to fourteen. I can take a lot of confidence away from the weekend. Thank you to the team for keeping going with me! I like Knockhill, I’ll keep an open mind and we can go again.
Race 2 – 8th Race 3 – 14th
#18 Andrew Irwin
It was a really frustrating weekend, we had a lot of speed and good pace. Unfortunately, I come away with no points which is disappointing. I apologise to Honda and everyone in the team, I know it’s frustrating and we should have come away with more this weekend. I can’t blame anyone else apart from myself, but I am man enough now to know what I need to do to learn, grow and move forward. I apologise to Storm for my mistake and I accept responsibility for what happened. I am looking forward to a few weeks off and then we will go again at Knockhill.
Race 2 – DNF Race 3 – DNF
