Ducati’s Christian Iddon claimed his second ever Bennetts British Superbike Championship victory on Saturday when he took the opening race of the weekend at Knockhill.
The VisionTrack rider took the lead just before half race distance after Danny Buchan (Synetiq BMW) ran wide at the hairpin and although it remained close he came home 0.348s clear of Championship leader Jason O’Halloran (McAMS Yamaha) with Buchan fighting back for third.
A problem with the starting lights led to a three-minute delay to proceedings with the race subsequently reduced from 22 to 20 laps and it was O’Halloran who grabbed the holeshot when it finally got underway.
He held onto the lead for two laps before Iddon nosed ahead at the beginning of lap three and two corners later Buchan followed him past the Australian. Indeed, the leading two riders began to open up a small gap and on lap six Buchan took over at the front.
O’Halloran remained in third ahead of Peter Hickman (FHO Racing BMW), Bradley Ray (Rich Energy OMG Racing BMW) and a flying Rory Skinner (FS-3 Racing Kawasaki) whilst Tarran Mackenzie (McAMS Yamaha) was making good progress from his fifth row start and was up to ninth. Tommy Bridewell (Oxford Products Ducati) had gone with him too and was up to eighth but Josh Brookes was still in 13th on the second VisionTrack Ducati
Lap eight saw Buchan lose the front at the hairpin and run wide, dropping back to fourth, and that handed the lead back to Iddon from O’Halloran and Hickman with Ray and Skinner close behind in fifth and sixth.
At half race distance, Iddon led O’Halloran by half a second and the top six held station for the next few laps with Ryan Vickers (RAF Regular & Reserve Kawasaki) in a strong seventh ahead of Bridewell, Mackenzie and Lee Jackson who was exchanging places regularly with Kyle Ryde.
Back at the front and Iddon was maintaining a lead of around six tenths, a gap which had crept up to three quarters of as second by lap 14 and a lap later Buchan moved back into the top three at the expense of Hickman.
Ray wasn’t far behind but Skinner had dropped back slightly and was circulating on his own, 1.5s behind Ray but the same amount ahead of Mackenzie who was now in seventh ahead of Vickers and Bridewell.
As the race entered the final two laps, the front three had closed right back up but no-one was close enough to make a pass and Iddon duly held on to win from O’Halloran with Buchan just under a tenth of a second further back in third.
There was heartache for Hickman on the final lap though when the BMW ground to a halt and that allowed Ray to take fourth ahead of Skinner who rode superbly for fifth.
Mackenzie took a good sixth after his qualifying crash with Vickers another to impress in seventh ahead of Bridewell, Jackson and Brookes who salvaged tenth after another challenging day.
