The reigning British Superbike (BSB) Champion had a weekend full of ups and downs at Oulton Park.

After a crash on Saturday that saw Tommy Bridewell lose the Championship lead, the reigning Champion turned his weekend around on Sunday.

“Tough weekend for sure," Bridewell said after Race Three. "Well it wasn’t a tough weekend, it was just if I’m honest, we as a team, we’re obviously always pushing and thriving to develop the bike and leave no stone unturned. We had some new parts that, in truth, we need to spend a bit more time on. It was very positive on Friday, but we just didn’t have the time to get it right. So we sort of lost that day and then, obviously we had to revert back for the Saturday.

"Immediately I felt really strong on the bike Saturday morning and then straight into qualifying, front row, felt great”.

Saturday was going well for Bridewell and he looked certain to keep his Championship lead until disaster struck.

“Unfortunately I didn’t get a chance to do any sort of full fuel load simulations or anything so probably a little bit of naivety, weirdly, or stupidity is probably the better word - that going into the race yesterday I felt, you know, I knew I could get a good start, be patient and let the race come to me. It’s a really, really peculiar crash yesterday, which was frustrating because, honestly, still not 100% sure the answer, I know why I crashed, it’s just very peculiar I did crash”.

The weather on Sunday threw up more challenges for Bridewell. However, the #1 stood strong and took back his Championship lead with two strong results to end his weekend.

Bridewell continued by saying: “I knew the bike was strong, I knew today the weather was going to be intermittent, so the wet race this morning was good until, in truth, my visor wouldn’t disperse the water, so I couldn’t really see, so when I got in behind Leon every time I could, lets say, catch him, I couldn’t physically. Couldn’t see five foot in front of me, so I know I was sort of in trouble - especially when the rest come past me, so it was a bit of a salvage job”.

Bridewell stood on the podium for the first time across the weekend in the mixed conditions in Race Three. The reigning BSB Champion took inspiration from Garrett Gerloff's ride at Magny-Cours in World Superbikes, which gave him the confidence to trust in the intermediate tyres.

“In that race, if I’m honest, I was really, really, really happy with my riding on the intermediate front, slick rear because, in truth, it’s never been my forte of conditions.

"Then I watched Magny-Cours last weekend and I saw Garrett Gerloff and it was wet on inters and I was like ‘bloody hell, they obviously do work quite well!’ I took confidence from that and it’s the best I’ve ridden with an inter front, slick rear”.