Scott Redding has kept his British Superbike Championship title dream alive with a sensational victory at Brands Hatch in tricky weather conditions.
Redding’s title dream was hanging by a thread in the opening couple of laps as he dropped down to 11 th whilst pole-sitter Kyle Ryde led comfortably at the front.
Redding was up to eighth on lap six, before working his way up into fourth on lap nine; albeit with a two-second gap to the leading trio of Ryde, Max Cook and Ryan Vickers.
Chaos then ensued thanks to drops of rain falling around the circuit. Cook took the lead away from Ryde, who also dropped behind Vickers. Suddenly, Redding and the top seven were bunched together as everybody tried to figure out the weather conditions.
Redding went down the inside of Ryde at turn one on lap 11 to move into third, and by the end of the following lap Redding led the race.
Ryde followed Redding back through to second and was preparing to chase his title rival in when heavier rain fell on lap 15, bringing out the red flags as a result. The result was declared as three thirds distance had been covered.
It’s Redding’s eighth victory of the season and he closes the gap to Ryde in the championship to 48 points. It means the championship fight goes down to the final day, with 70 points up for grabs at Brands Hatch.
Vickers completed the podium for Honda Racing UK after pipping Leon Haslam to the finish line by 0.096s. Cook completed the top five after leading for a couple of laps in the middle of the race.
Rory Skinner and Bradley Ray come home in sixth and seventh respectively, with Joe Talbot, Danny Kent and Lee Jackson completing the top 10.
Christian Iddon missed out on a spot inside the top 10 by just under a second. Iddon’s current team Sencat Racing announced on Saturday afternoon that they would not be continuing in the championship in 2017.
Jason O’Halloran, Storm Stacey and Scott Swann were covered by just 0.076 at the finish as they secured positions 12 th -14 th , whilst Josh Brookes claimed the final point in 15 th .
Fraser Rogers retired a few corners into the race with a bike issue, which Eugene McManus crashed at Druids on lap eight. Luke Hedger retired at the end of lap 13.
Sunday’s BSB races at Brands Hatch are scheduled to take place at 13:10 and 16:10.
Sports Reporter - Motorcycle racing enthusiast Josh joined the MCN team in 2019. He studied Sports Journalism at the University of Sunderland, leaving with a 2:1 and a Gold Standard Diploma in Journalism from the National Council for the Training of Journalists (NCTJ). Introduced to the world of motorcycle racing by his dad as a youngster, Josh became a fan of MotoGP, WorldSBK and BSB. Like many, Josh became a huge Valentino Rossi supporter…little did he know that years later he would ask a question or two to the man himself.
Sports Reporter and fan of all things motorsport