Milwaukee Yamaha rider James Ellison made up for his difficult first race by taking the victory in the second MCE British Superbike race of the day at Brands Hatch. The Kendal native started on pole position, but it was Rapid Solicitors Kawasaki’s and race one winner Shane Byrne who led on the first lap.
But Ellison was not far behind and managed to regain the lead on lap three, followed closely by Byrne and Samsung Honda’s Alex Lowes in third. Lowes’ team mate former BSB champion Ryuichi Kiyonari had a better race than the one earlier in the afternoon, and was consistently in the top five over the thirty laps.
Tyco Suzuki’s Josh Brookes could not manage the form from race two, or the pace to battle with the top three riders. He did have a solid afternoon racing, but could not overtake Kiyonari on the final laps and came across the line in fifth place.
Byrne was close to finishing second on the grid, but an overtaking manoeuvre on Ellison proved too much for the experienced rider, and he ended up going wide on the twenty seventh lap and found himself racing across the grass on the Indy circuit. Byrne did eventually compose himself enough to rejoin the race in third place behind Samsung Honda’s Alex Lowes, and for the remaining three laps of the race the formation stayed the same, with Ellison crossing the line in first followed by Lowes and Byrne respectively.
Buildbase BMW’s Jon Kirkham finished in sixth, followed closely by PR Racing Kawasaki’s Karl Harris, who after crashing in both the warm up and race one made it safely over the line for the first time today. After crashing in race one BMW Buildbase rider James Westmoreland was fit enough to take part in race two, and finished in ninth, followed by Rapid Solicitor Kawasaki's rookie rider Keith Farmer, who rounded off the top ten.
There were no major incidents this time out, but Bathams Honda rider Tommy Bridewell had technical issues, which saw his bike blow smoke all over the track, and he quickly made his way back to the pits. There were notable absentees in race two, and the most prominent one was Lloyds British GBmoto Honda rider Dan Linfoot, who has suspected fractures and is in hospital, after a crash with Westmoreland earlier on in the day.
