Josh Brookes and the VisionTrack Ducati team took the second Bennetts British Superbike race win at Donington Park on Sunday and in doing so, also took over the championship lead.

Former champion Brookes took the lead on the fifth lap and held off a late charge from fellow Australian Jason O’Halloran with the second McAMS Yamaha of Tarran Mackenzie taking third.

A dramatic opening lap saw Ryan Vickers (RAF Regular & Reserve Kawasaki) and first race winner Andrew Irwin (Honda Racing) crash at Goddards and just a few yards later Peter Hickman (Global Robots BMW) went down, after being hit from the inside, taking Danny Buchan (Rapid Fulfillment Kawasaki) with him.

It was Kyle Ryde (Buildbase Suzuki) who led the field round at the end of the first lap but he ran into trouble on lap two running straight on at the Esses - and eventual retirement - to put pole sitter Jack Kennedy in the lead on the second RAF machine whilst further drama ensued next time around with Lee Jackson and Ian Hutchinson crashing in separate incidents.

As the race settled down, Gino Rea was now in the lead from Brookes but on lap five the Australian hit the front although the leading pack now consisted of six riders – Brookes, Rea, Glenn Irwin, O’Halloran, Kennedy and Tommy Bridewell. Iddon and Mackenzie were slightly adrift in seventh and eighth.

Lap six saw Brookes open up a 0.6s lead as Irwin and O’Halloran tried to find a way by Rea, the Buildbase Suzuki rider the stronger on the brakes, with Bridewell now the fastest man on track and up to fifth at the expense of Kennedy.

By half race distance, Brookes’ lead was up to 1.1s and O’Halloran was now up into third after putting a move on Irwin going into the Melbourne Hairpin. Meanwhile, Mackenzie had pushed Iddon back down to eighth.

Rea had a bobble on the way into the Foggy Esses on lap nine and that allowed O’Halloran to draw level on the exit and then go up the inside, again at the Melbourne Hairpin.

Irwin followed him by the Suzuki man shortly afterwards with the gap to Brookes now two seconds but a series of fast laps by O’Halloran brought it down to 1.5s with four laps to go.

Mackenzie was lapping quickly too and was now up to third with Rea and Bridewell close behind as Irwin slipped back to sixth. This became seventh on lap 13 as Iddon also nosed ahead whilst the gap between Brookes and O’Halloran was now 0.9s.

Despite his best efforts though, he ultimately fell short and Brookes took his third win of the season which also saw him go to the top of the Championship standings for the first time in 2020.

Mackenzie made it double celebration for McAMS Yamaha with third as Rea took his best ever BSB result in fourth. Bridewell and Iddon took fifth and sixth on their Ducatis, the latter now seven points adrift of Brookes.

Former Championship leader Glenn Irwin took seventh with Kennedy, Luke Mossey and Joe Francis completing the top ten.

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