Team NB’s Tommy Bridewell took his second double win of the season in the MCE British Superbike Cup Championship at Silverstone this weekend after battling through drastic problems that impacted on his qualifying position.
In the first part of the qualifying session Bridewell set the seventh fastest time on track before discovering problems with the gearbox which caused held him back in the second stage allowing him to only qualify 20th.
It was further discovered that the gearbox was not fixable trackside forcing the team to return home to Wiltshire to collect a standard unit from a road bike that they then fitted in the early hours of Sunday.
Bridewell finished 12th overall, easily taking the Cup win in race one after Champion Gary Mason crashed, but race two was a bit more of a challenge due to a multi-bike pile up that forced him onto the gravel before the race was then red flagged.  In the restart he didn’t get the best of starts and suffered grip problems, but this didn’t stop him taking another 12th place and the Cup win again.
Bridewell said: “I don't know what it is about me and tyres but after the slow puncture at Croft, we went with the same race tyre as I started race two on but it didn't work a second time so we should have maybe gone for a new one as I think the heat cycle had been broken.
“I'm pleased with the results but I expect to win and I'm only interested in how many works riders I can beat now. I'm riding so hard, I'm nearly crashing everywhere but as long as we can, we'll keep trying and hope that someone is taking notice of our achievements.”