Jack Kennedy took the opening Quattro Group British Supersport Championship race at Silverstone on Saturday afternoon with victory giving the Mar-Train Racing Yamaha rider his 50th win in the class.
The race saw a three-way battle between Kennedy, Lee Johnston (Ashcourt Racing Yamaha) and Bradley Perie (Appleyard Macadam Yamaha) until the latter retired on the 12th lap allowing teammate Harry Truelove to take the final podium position.
It was Perie who grabbed the holeshot from Kennedy and Johnston but it was Kennedy who led the field round at the end of the opening lap having slipped up the inside of Perie at Brooklands. Truelove pushed Johnston back to fourth with Rhys Irwin (Astro JJR Triumph) and Jaimie van Sikkelerus (MPM Routz Racing Yamaha) slotting into fifth and sixth.
Perie moved back into the lead at Maggots next time around only for Kennedy to re-take the lead at Copse at the start of lap three. Johnston had also moved back into third with the leading quartet already pulling away from the chasing pack.
Meanwhile, Damon Rees, Sam Munro and Eugene McManus were all out whilst holding onto top ten positions, Rees and Munro tangling at Luffield and McManus going down at Copse.
Back at the front and Kennedy still led Perie and Johnston with just half a second covering them as they started their sixth lap, Truelove now half a second adrift in fourth. Irwin and van Sikkelerus continued to hold on to fifth and sixth with Jack Scott the leading GP2 category in ninth.
There was little to choose between the leading trio with Johnston setting a new lap record on lap six and they continued to dispute the lead and pull further away from Truelove in doing so.
By the ninth lap, half race distance, it looked like Kennedy and Perie were beginning to make the break from Johnston with the latter four tenths adrift going into the second half of the race. However, the Ulsterman was soon back with them and, indeed, moved into second soon afterwards.
There was drama on the 11th lap though when Perie went straight on at Becketts and dropped from third all the way down to 12th and a lap later he pulled in to retire. Teammate Truelove moved into the final podium position and Perie’s demise meant it was a straight shoot out between Kennedy and Johnston for the race win.
However, Kennedy got the hammer down in the final third of the race to run outright victor by more than seven seconds with Johnston and Truelove joining him on the podium.
The battle for fourth went all the way to the end and it was van Sikkelerus who came out on top ahead of Luke Jones (Highsparks Motorsport Ducati) and Irwin. Eunan McGlinchey, Cameron Fraser, Harvey Claridge and Luke Day completed the top ten with Fraser the first of the GP2 riders to finish after Scott tangled with a backmarker on the final lap.
