It may have taken him 139 times to do it but Christian Iddon finally chalked up his first Bennetts British Superbike Championship victory at Snetterton at the weekend and with another podium in the third and final race, the VisionTrack Ducati rider is well in the title hunt.

 
Indeed, he’s already proven to be shrewd acquisition for Paul Bird’s team and his victory in Saturday’s opener was certainly one of the most popular in the paddock as he came home ahead of team-mate Josh Brookes. Iddon was also pleased to prove the doubters wrong.
 
“It’s been a long time coming and a long old road so to finally get the win is brilliant,” he said afterwards. “Paul Bird and the VisionTrack Ducati team put their faith in me when other people weren’t so sure but Paul was and I really appreciate that.”
 
“I made a mediocre start but there was a lot of to-ing and fro-ing in the first few corners so I moved up to second and when Danny Buchan fell in front of me, I felt pretty good leading. I miss-read my board though and almost celebrated too early but I got the head back down.”
 
Iddon wasn’t able to repeat the victory in either of Sunday’s races but he was in the mix in both and came away with third and fifth place finishes to move into third place in the title standings, 32 points behind current leader Glenn Irwin.
 
“Sunday’s first race was frustrating as I just couldn’t close the gap to the front group. The pace was the quickest it had been all weekend and I was struggling a bit with the bike as I was quick in some corners but slow in others and I was especially losing time through the mid-speed corners.”
 
“The team had to change the engine between races and they did a great job and I knew I had to make the most of my pole position. I didn’t have the pace to stay with Glenn so had to let him go when he came by and then Tommy mugged me on the final corner but with a first and a third, my first ever BSB win and a watch for pole position it’s been a good weekend.”