Homer Racing’s Hudson Kennaugh battled to the bitter end with ILR Kawasaki’s Filip Backlund in the Pirelli National Superstock 1000 race, and on the final lap the South African snatched the victory from the Swedish rider.
Kennaugh led from the start, but pole setter, Backlund was never far behind, followed by his team-mate Victor Cox. The Swede tried to overtake, and first unsuccessfully at Coppice on lap eleven, but was able to make a move that stuck at the Old Hairpin a lap later. Backlund continued to up the pace and set a new lap record of 1’32.034 on lap ten.
But Kennaugh was not going to let the Superstock rookie take the race spoils and made on move on the final lap on the Melbourne Loop to go into the lead and even though Backlund tried to overtake again, before the Wheatcroft Straight it was not enough and he had to settle for second, with Cox finishing the race in third.
Kennaugh now leads the championship by three points from Adam Jenkinson. JG Speedfit rider Joe Burns could not catch up with the leading trio, but successfully out paced Buildbase BMW’s Lee Jackson, who ended the race in fifth. Formwise Racing’s Luke Quigley, Idaq Motorsport’s Peter Ward and GAR Acorn’s Josh Elliot rounded off the top ten.
There were a couple of fallers over the fifteen laps. Be Wiser Kawasaki’s Josh Day crashed at the Melbourne Hairpin, followed by Bournemouth Kawasaki’s Kyle Wilks who dropped his bike at Goddards.
