Ben Currie racks up a consecutive Supersport podium

Ben Currie put in another consistent ride in the Quattro Group British Supersport sprint race on the Panigale V2 at Snetterton this afternoon to take a consecutive third place finish for the Oxford Products Racing Ducati team.

Starting from his qualifying position of fifth on the grid, he gradually picked off his rivals in front. He looked like he would be settling for fourth when the race leader crashed out on the penultimate lap, elevating Ben to his third podium of the season to date.

Ben Currie (Oxford Products Racing Ducati #61)
"It's been a really good race, and got on the podium, a little bit unexpected. From the early part of the race, I was back in sixth or seventh. I knew I had the pace to be up further but I just couldn't get past. But a couple of the guys in front made a few mistakes which allowed me to get back up to the front. I thought I was closing down the leaders as I had good pace but just couldn't bridge the gap to get on the back of them. But a solid third place which is great for the championship and a step further with the bike, so I'm really looking forward to tomorrow!"

Pole start and potential podium for Christian Iddon at Knockhill

Real progress has been made by Christian and the Oxford Products Racing Ducati team this weekend and we were on for our best result of the season to date during the final Bennetts British Superbike race at Knockhill.

Race 2

Christian Iddon got another good start on today's first 30-lap BSB race at Knockhill. He set off from eighth on the grid, and immediately passed Charlie Nesbitt before taking Lee Jackson at Duffus Dip on Lap 2 to move up to sixth. Christian then got past Josh Brookes to move up into fifth, keeping up with leading group of riders.

As the race reached half-distance Christian was looking to get past Ryan Vickers, but Tommy Bridewell was on a charge behind him, and got past Christian demoting him back to sixth.

The final laps saw Christian drop back slightly but when race leader Glenn Irwin crashed out at Taylor’s Hairpin on Lap 27, Christian was gifted a position to rack up his third consecutive fifth-place finish

Showing his speed on the Panigale V4 R, Christian posted the fastest lap of the race with a time of 47.582s so he lined up for the third and final Superbike race of the weekend at the front of the grid, his first pole of the season.

Race 3

Christian held second behind Jason O’Halloran as the lights went out but after trying to get the place back at the hairpin he was sat up and Tommy Bridewell took advantage to pass Iddon and demote him to third.

But only moments later, on the second lap, race leader Jason O’Halloran crashed out, gifting Tommy Bridewell the lead and Iddon second place.

The next lap saw Christian back to third after Kyle Ryde passed, and Christian was then down to fourth after Glenn Irwin came through.

But on Lap 17 of 30 Christian got third back from Kyle Ryde at the hairpin to make it a Ducati 1-2-3 behind the BeerMonster Ducati duo.

Sadly, on Lap 20 Christian ran on at the hairpin dashing any hopes of a first podium with the Oxford Products Racing Ducati team. But he did well to keep his bike upright and make it out of the gravel trap in tenth. He was then able to make up another position before the flag to finish ninth. 

But the team can be happy with the real progression made together during the weekend, and we now look ahead to Round 5 of the Bennetts British Superbike Championship at Snetterton next month.

Christian Iddon (Oxford Products Racing Ducati #21)
“The weekend started out super difficult, I really struggled and couldn't get any flow with the bike and just couldn't make the lap time come. But we seemed to find a bit of form by the time we got to the first race, 20 strong laps. Pulled our way from twelfth to fifth and gave ourselves eighth on the grid for the first race on Sunday which was ok, but it wasn't brilliant, but ok and we got ourselves fifth again in that one, in the front group but just sort of hanging on to it.

I then made a little bit of an error at the hairpin in the next race, and lost the group and ended up in a bit of a lonely fifth.

But in the final race I felt a lot more racy to be fair. We gained in every aspect apart from one, but we lost in that one and I wasn't able to get the drive that I was able to get previously over the start finish straight.

But apart from that the bike was so much better everywhere else and that's shown in the sector times. So, I felt really, really good and a podium was on the cards by the looks of it. And I actually felt like I could have had a little bit more for the two Ducatis up front. I just picked the rear up going into the hairpin but the bike sort of swapped on me and I just couldn't stop it and went straight on into the hairpin into the gravel. Ended up finishing ninth.

It's frustrating. It would have been really nice to reward the team for all their hard work all through the year so far with a podium. But we have to wait a little bit longer for it. Progress has been made for sure, we're starting to get there, and starting to finally show what we've got.”

Ben Currie on the box at Knockhill

Sunday’s Supersport race was initially red flagged after a crash on the opening lap, with the restarted race around Knockhill's 1.3 mile long circuit reduced from 26 to 20 laps.

Ben Currie got a brilliant start on the Oxford Products Racing Ducati Panigale V2 and was soon up to third from his fifth-place grid slot after passing Luke Stapleford and Jamie Perrin.

But drama struck on Lap 3 when race leader Tom Booth-Amos hit the curb at the Arnold Clark Chicane and crashed out moving Ben into second place.

Ben was holding the position, but Luke Stapleford made a pass half-way through the race, going on to chase down the eventual race winner Rhys Irwin. The duo made a gap at the front with Ben finishing his race in third, 3.4s down the road but also 3.5s clear of fourth place finisher Tom Toparis.

Ben’s podium finish sees him move up into second in the Supersport championship, just nine points behind Luke Stapleford.

Ben Currie (Oxford Products Racing Ducati #61)
“I thought I could have been in for the chance of a victory there, and to fight for it at least in the last lap. But about middle race distance it just started getting physically quite hard for me to hang onto the guys at the front.

I feel like the package was pretty much there this weekend, but maybe I’m just not quite getting the maximum out of it. But it’s still early days on the project so I'm just trying to understand things a little bit more.

The team’s done an awesome job to give me a Ducati this weekend that worked around this little nadgery circuit. I was a bit apprehensive coming here this weekend, figured it might be a bit tough against the Suzukis and Kawasakis. But we’re on the box here and we can go home smiling. And we've got some really strong tracks coming up.

I just want to say a huge thanks to all my team, the guys, John F Hunt, Ambipar, everybody that sponsors me on my helmet and leathers, everyone that supports me behind the scenes. Thanks very much and roll on Snetterton!”

Strong finishes for Christian Iddon and Ben Currie at Knockhill after closing their opening races in fifth and fourth respectively

Superbike

Christian was showing good pace through his Free Practice sessions at Knockhill but that wasn’t fairly reflected in qualifying and he lined up on the Superbike grid on the Oxford Products Racing Ducati Panigale V4 R this afternoon in twelfth.

He made up a position on his opening lap, and by Lap 3 had climbed a couple more places to ninth. Half-way through the 20-lap BikeSocial Sprint race Christian was up to seventh, albeit gifted one of those places after Charlie Nesbitt crashed out unhurt.

Ryan Vickers took that position from Christian a few laps later but as the race came to its conclusion Christian had already got that place back. He went on to pass Leon Haslam into Taylors on the penultimate lap, going on to match his previous and best performance of the season to date in fifth.

Christian’s best lap time of 47.652 will see him line up for the first of his two 30-lap races at 1:35pm tomorrow on the third row of the grid in eighth.

Supersport

Ben Currie got his weekend off to a fantastic start at Knockhill after topping the free practice combined classifications in first place. A front row start looked to be on the cards, but Ben ended up qualifying in fifth place for the opening Sprint race on Saturday.

Ben held his position for the first half of the 20-lap race, with the top five riders creating a gap ahead of the rest of the field, eventually splitting into two groups themselves.

Lap 11 saw Ben pass Jamie Perrin to move up into fourth, and he went on to take the chequered flag on the Panigale V2 in that same position with a healthy 2.5s gap.

Ben lines up for tomorrow’s Supersport 26-lap race in fifth once again, with his race scheduled to start at 3:45pm.

Iain Hopcroft – Team Manager

“Both riders worked well through practises. During Christian’s practises we were second and fourth for a while, but qualifying didn't come to fruition or reflect the hard work he had put in. But everybody was so close, the top 18 were split by something like 0.75s so very little movement or error made a big difference in the starting grid position. But Christian seemed to make that up with very good pace throughout the race.

Christian starts P8 tomorrow putting us a notch up on the grid and that will give us a chance of getting away with the guys at the front and staying with them because our pace was the same as those front guys, we just weren’t right there. in today’s race.  

With Ben we’ve got some things to work on. We’ve tried some different setups over the weekend so far, electronically and suspension wise. We will do some more adjustments in preperation for tomorrow's race to give him the advantage in the place that he’s lacking, and then we have another go!”

A sick Christian Iddon takes a brilliant ninth and fifth as the team make great progress at Donington

The Oxford Products Ducati Team made massive progress at Donington this weekend, despite luck not going the team’s way. Some technical issues were fixed on the Friday and Christian Iddon had made a brilliant start to yesterday’s race, only to be taken out by another rider.

The lost lap times resulted saw Christian line up 15th place for the first of the two races today. But Christian had more than the poor grid slot to contend with. He fell ill during the night so badly that the team considered pulling him from the races. But he was determined to make it onto the grid and went out and scored a top ten finish coming home in ninth.

A short rest and he was back out again for the final race of the weekend, once again starting from 15th. But this time he went even better, battling with the group of riders out at the front and finishing in fifth, and only five seconds down the road from the winner, and with a podium finish in sight.

Steve ‘Wilf’ Moore
Oxford Products Racing Ducati – Team Owner / Crew Chief
“Bit of a weekend of testing the team, certainly. More technical issues, that I can happily report we finally fixed on Friday. Set us on the back foot a little bit. And then Christian got taken out in the race yesterday, had an accident, a racing incident, whatever you want to call it, but didn't finish the race. Lacked the data we needed for the race today and then unfortunately overnight Christian got very ill.

We’ve been to the medical centre. They've been amazing and helped him out with some drugs and tried to get some fluids into him. But he had one hour sleep last night and was very ill. We almost pulled him from the race today, but he was insisting to ride in Warm Up where we tried the SC0 tyre.

Christian was very ill in the race and the last race he did an amazing job to come through from starting row five on the grid to fifth and in sight of the podium, particularly being very ill twice in the race including all over our motorcycle and his leathers. But that's washable, so we’re happy enough, and we’ve made massive progress. I can’t thank the team enough.”

Ben Currie leaves Donington on a high after taking second in Sunday’s Supersport race

Ben Currie scored his best result of the season at Donington Park this weekend. Although it may have had a low point, there were so many positives to take away, along with some silverware to boot.

Ben starting the weekend off in style, topping the first Free Practice session, and was in the top two of every subsequent session. He went on to start his first race on Saturday from the front row of the grid in second place, getting a great start to take the holeshot and race lead.

But hopes of a first victory with the Oxford Products Racing Ducati Panigale V2 were dashed after he crashed out whilst leading the final lap of the race.

However, Ben put Saturday’s result behind him to perform brilliant in Sunday's race. He once again got the holeshot from second on the grid and led for the first third of the race. He held onto second for the remainder, taking the chequered flag in that same position to the delight of the team, marking his best result of the season to date as he continues to improve.

Ben Currie (Oxford Products Racing Ducati #61)
“Absolutely over the moon with the weekend, we worked really well. It's been our best weekend so far. We've been taking steps every weekend now and we're in the top two of every session. Finished off the weekend with solid P2.

Overall, I didn’t have the pace to go with the leader but we’re slowly getting there and working it out as a team. I can feel myself with full of confidence, same with the team. The boys did fantastic, and we can keep this moment rolling into Knockhill.

We got a third at Oulton, a second here, and hopefully now we can take that next step to the top step, and keep the ball rolling for the rest of the year.”