Tommy Bridewell made it two wins from two in the second British Superbike Championship race of the weekend at Snetterton, the BeerMonster Ducati rider eking his points lead in the process.

Held over just eight laps after a red flag in the initial start, Bridewell took a comfortable win over Josh Brookes (FHO Racing BMW) and Leon Haslam (ROKiT BMW Motorrad).

With main championship rivals Glenn Irwin and Kyle Ryde finishing fourth and 11th respectively, Bridewell has stretched his overall advantage to 23 points with one race remaining today.

From the start, it was Brookes who led into the first corner from Irwin and Bridewell at the first time of asking and although Glenn Irwin on the second BeerMonster machine nosed ahead at Agostini’s, he immediately ran wide which handed the lead straight back to the Australian.

He led across the line at the end of the first lap from Irwin, Christian Iddon (Oxford Products Ducati), Jason O’Halloran (McAMS Yamaha) and Bridewell, the latter losing ground after a coming together with Iddon through Coram Curve.

Brookes continued to lead the way, but Iddon dropped back to seventh on lap three after running wide at turn two whilst Ryan Vickers’ bad luck continued as a technical issue caused him to drop to the back of the field.

Lap four saw O’Halloran make a move on Irwin to go second whilst further behind Bridewell was regrouping in fourth with Lee Jackson up to sixth on the Cheshire Mouldings Kawasaki.  O’Halloran then took the lead the Murray chicane and although he lost the lead along the start and finish straight, he nipped back up the inside of Brookes at Riches when the latter ran slightly wide.

With clear track ahead of him, O’Halloran opened a half second lead and, spotting the danger, Irwin made a move on Brookes at the start of lap six and the running order was now O’Halloran, Irwin, Brookes, Bridewell, Danny Buchan (Synetiq BMW) and Haslam.

Aided by the fastest lap of the race, Irwin soon reeled O’Halloran back in, but the red flag came out on lap seven after Buchan crashed out on the exit at Hamilton with Peter Hickman going down at the same place in a separate incident. Both riders were able to walk away although Buchan looked somewhat groggy.

Restarted over eight laps, Brookes again got the holeshot with O’Halloran and Haslam in second and third, but O’Halloran made contact with Brookes at Agostini and dropped back to fourth and at the end of the lap the top six was Brookes, Haslam, Bridewell, O’Halloran, Irwin and Danny Kent (Lovell Kent Racing Honda).

Bridewell moved up to second next time around, riding round the outside of Haslam at the chicane, and a lap later took the lead as he slipped up the inside of Brookes on the way into Agostini. Further back, Irwin briefly moved up to fourth but immediately ran wide and dropped back to sixth behind Kent.

Starting the fifth lap, Bridewell’s lead over Brookes was almost nine tenths of a second and it was more than a second a lap later as Brookes and Haslam disputed second with O’Halloran and Irwin doing similar for fourth.

Kent was still running in a strong sixth whilst further back, Jackson took over seventh from Kyle Ryde (LAMI OMG Racing Yamaha).

Bridewell put the hammer down in the closing laps and continued to extend his lead, eventually taking the chequered flag by 1.6s with Brookes and Haslam joining him on the podium in second and third.

Irwin got by O’Halloran at the final corner to take fourth with Kent taking his second sixth place of the weekend ahead of Jackson, Iddon, Vickers and Jack Kennedy. Ryde slipped back to 11^th.