Worx Suzuki's Sylvain Guintoli has taken his debut British Superbike win at Brands Hatch this afternoon following a action-packed 30-lapper at the Kent circuit.

The former MotoGP rider took victory by a little under a second from HM Plant Honda's Glen Richards and Hydrex Honda's Stuart Easton in third. Airwaves Yamaha's Leon Camier rode through from tenth to fourth after going off track on lap 16 at Druids.
It was Easton that led into the first corner followed by HM Plant Honda stand-in Steve Plater and second Hydrex Honda rider Karl Harris in third.  The debuting Guintoli had a bad start from his pole position putting him in fifth. From the first lap bomber Harris was battling and exchanging places with Plater before Harris was over taken by Richards pushing him down to fourth.
As the riders were about to start lap three an incident occurred which saw Hardinge Doodson Motorsport Tom Tunstall and Mist Suzuki Matt Bond both crash out of the race. Due to Bond suffering an injury that left him laying on the track at the exit of Clark Curve, the safety car came out. Fortunately he looks to have suffered no serious injurymay still take part in race two.
The safety car negated Easton's 1.4-second and it was all go again as the safety car pulled on lap six.  When the battle re-commenced, Richards moved up to second before taking the lead. On lap 11 it was a case of déjà vu as Harris crashed at Druids.  This put Plater a position closer to Easton before making his move at Paddock Hill as they started lap 12.
Plater hunted down his team mate to take the lead as Guintoli overtook two riders putting him into third causing Easton to slip further down the order and battle with the first Airwaves Yamaha rider Leon Camier.
Camier, who was now fully in his stride continued to move in front of both Easton and Richards putting him behind the leader Plater.  It was all change on lap 16 as Plater crashed on the entry to Druids. His datalogger showed he was trailing a massive amount of rear brake into the turn for a couple of lap reviously. As Plater crashed into the gravel, who is fortunately OK, Camier was forced to take evasive action before rejoining the grid in 10th place.
As the race continued Camier demonstrated the reason why he is an for Airwaves Yamaha rider as he clawed back to take fourth, ahead of his team mate James Ellison as they crossed the finish line.  After a frustrating start to the weekend Ellison held his position, was consistent throughout the race and made Camier work to get that extra place.
 
Guintoli put his huge amount of experience up front for the others to take on. The then top three Guintoli, Richards and Easton held their positions for the first podium of 2009. MSS Colchester's Simon Andrews, who is still suffering from the injuries sustained in a crash at Mallory, took seventh behind Quay Honda's Gary Mason, who was by far and away the fastest Cup runner.
Mason of has been showing all weekend that his new engine can do the job and even though he is in the cup category, he is certainly a front runner and will be battling with the big boys.  He finished sixth ahead of Martin Jessopp of Riders Honda Racing in 18th with Peter Hickman of Ultimate Racing in 21st to take the final Cup podium step.
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