MCE British Superbike race director Stuart Higgs has refuted claims by some riders that a chemical agent used to remove contamination from the Brands Hatch surface at the weekend caused more problems than it solved.

Sunday’s action was run in very wet and cold conditions with more than 70 incidents reported by trackside marshals across the day - 18 alone in the blue riband class qualifying sessions.

Afterwards, riders including Josh Brookes and John Hopkins concluded the cleaning agent, called Bio-Task, had made the surface worse but Higgs has provided bikesportnews.com with his statistics that say otherwise.

In all sessions prior to BSB qualifying, 52 crashes were recorded (see table below) with 22 at Cooper Straight: “The highest area of falls was recorded at Cooper Straight, historically difficult in cold and wet conditions given it’s the only real left hander on the circuit,” said Higgs.

“Prior to BSB qualifying this area was observed to be showing signs of contaminant on crash paths and treated with a chemical agent called Bio-Task which we use at all circuits in the championship, 1/20th diluted with water, this is then jetted and pressure sucked.

“No other section of the circuit had any visual sign of contaminant and was not treated with anything - but rain continued to fall.”

During BSB qualifying, 18 crashes were recorded (see table below) with four at Cooper Straight: “This would indicate that the area specifically treated significantly improved. The suggestion that all the track was treated with detergent is a complete myth.

“In between each BSB qualifying element and following the conclusion of BSB Q3 the circuit was inspected and there was still no visual evidence of contamination.”

On the Motorpoint British Supersport sprint race sighting lap, run after BSB qualifying one bike dropped fuel around the whole circuit which was then treated where contamination was evident. Only four crashes were recorded.

“That would clearly indicate to me that the cleaning materials and processes are effective and also coincided with ambient temperature going up a degree or two,” concluded Higgs.

He also denied that Eurosport were pushing for TV coverage to continue despite the conditions.

“As the delay showed on Sunday preceding the Supersport race and on Monday following the careful reaction following James Hillier’s engine failure there is no gun to my head from TV broadcasters.

“The cleaning processes are the same at each venue and the Tarmac at Brands Hatch is exactly the same constitution as that at Oulton Park, Snetterton, Cadwell Park and Silverstone, all handled by the same engineering contractors.”

Crashes prior to BSB qualifying

PADDOCK HILL 2

HAILWOOD HILL 1

DRUIDS 1

GRAHAM HILL 6

COOPER STRAIGHT 22

SURTEES 1

MCLAREN 1

CLEARWAYS 9

CLARK CURVE 9

Total: 52

Crashes during BSB qualifying

PADDOCK HILL 1

HAILWOOD HILL 0

DRUIDS 0

GRAHAM HILL 1

COOPER STRAIGHT 4

SURTEES 2

MCLAREN 3

CLEARWAYS 6

CLARK CURVE 1

Total: 18

Crashes after BSB qualifying

PADDOCK HILL 1

HAILWOOD HILL 0

DRUIDS 1

GRAHAM HILL 0

COOPER STRAIGHT 1

SURTEES 1

MCLAREN 0

CLEARWAYS 0

CLARK CURVE 0

Total: 4