HM Plant Honda's Leon Haslam has taken his second British Superbike win of the season at Cadwell Park this afternoon and continued his winning run at the Lincolnshire track.
Haslam and Rizla Suzuki's Tom Sykes were the class of the field, pulling out an eight-second lead over third-placed man Shane Byrne in 11 laps.
Byrne, Airwaves Ducati team-mate Leon Camier plus Cal Crutchlow and NW200 Ducati's Michael Rutter were locked in a battle for third until Byrne made a break past the HM Plant Honda and Camier followed him. It wad then down to Rutter and Crutchlow to fight it out for fifth.
Going into Coppice for the first time was Rizla Suzuki Tom Sykes followed by H M Plant Honda team mates Leon Haslam and Cal Crutchlow ahead of NW 200 Michael Rutter with Shane Byrne on the Airwaves Ducati. By lap three the leading trio had pulled away into a group of their own.
Byrne was constantly looking for a way around Rutter, but was limited to options on the narrow 2.173 mile long track. By lap five Crutchlow looked to be struggling and started to drop off the pace of the front two runners and by lap eight had fell back in to the clutches of the battle behind him.
In what was quite an uneventful race the action started in lap ten when Byrne finally managed to overtake Rutter at the bottom of park straight before making his move on Crutchlow for third a lap later, whilst his team mate Leon Camier moved to fourth putting a rest to the demons of his track.
Meanwhile there was a change in the lead as pocket rocket Haslam showed just how good he is at this track by taking the lead with a move at the bottom of the Park straight and holding to the chequered flag. With three laps to go the riders started to hit the back markers, but fortunately this didn’t cause any problems.
With one lap to go the only battle that looked undecided on track was between Michael Rutter and Cal Crutchlow, but Rutter couldn’t quite close the gap down and had to settle for sixth. The issue that caused Crutchlow to finish an astonishing 18 seconds behind his team mate was a bad tyre that caused severe chatter throughout the race and post-race was analysed to be three times more than yesterday’s recording.
James Ellison of Hydrex Honda due to a hand injury was a non-starter, non-finishers included Stuart Easton who looks to still be suffering from his previously broken wrist and Michael Howarth of Tena For Men Honda.
David Johnson of Team Maxxis was the first faller of the race on lap four and followed by yet again Rob Mac Racing rider Karl Harris. The Sheffield rider fell going into the left hander at the bottom of the mountain after pushing too hard.
Unfortunately he trapped his hand and shattering a couple of bones in his left hand, whilst also taking the nail off his little finger. A flying Rizla Suzuki didn’t stop him earlier in the year and neither will this, Harris immediately after the race had two injections and will be participating in race two.
Atsushi Watanabe of Rizla Suzuki had his best weekend so far by qualifying eighth and finishing ninth. Kenny Gilbertson finished within the top 20 after qualifying 25th and Guy Martin claimed the final point for Hydrex Animal Honda using his bike with traction control.
Gary Mason of Quay Honda took the top Daily Star Cup position, sitting tenth overall, followed by injured John Laverty of NW200 in 14th with MV Agusta Chris Burns rounding off the top three in 16th.
Click here for results