Like several other riders, reigning champion Tommy Bridewell turned a bad practice into strong race results at Donington Park at the weekend with three podiums moving him up to an ominous-looking fourth in the British Superbike Championship standings.

The Honda Racing rider struggled throughout Friday’s two practice sessions and could only manage 16th overall, a massive 1.353s off the pace. That meant he had to go through qualifying to make it into Superpole on Saturday but with changes to the Honda Fireblade, sixth place there put him in good stead for the opening race. And an extremely strong second place finish more than proved he was back on track.

“I knew something wasn’t quite right on Friday and we were really struggling, which was difficult because we couldn’t make any changes quickly between sessions,” he said. “The team made some big changes overnight though and pretty much built the bike again from scratch and when I went out on Saturday morning I thought ‘I’ve got my bike back.’”

“It was my pleasure then to go out and stick it on the podium and repay them for their hard work, it is what they deserve, and it is what we expect.”

Sunday’s two races followed a similar pattern. In the mix in each race, third in the Sprint race was followed by a superb ride into second behind Jason O’Halloran in Race 3 - the race of the season so far. Having led for the first half of the race, the second half saw positions repeatedly change hands in the leading pack and Bridewell’s determination was clear to see.

“It feels fantastic to be walking away from Donington with three more podiums and the rider of the round award. That last race was a proper good old dog fight and I absolutely loved it, we were having a right ‘ding dong’ for the entire race. Jason just timed his move at exactly the right time and nicked it, so credit to him.”

“I enjoyed every lap, getting the elbows out and having a good scrap. This weekend is testament to all the hard work that the team and I are putting in, and in truth, we are overachieving for where we are in this project. There is so much more to come and that first Honda win is not far away at all.”