Four wins on the bounce for Ben Currie at Cadwell Park

Australian Ben Currie stormed to a consecutive double win on his Oxford Products Racing Ducati Panigale V2 today to take a commanding lead in the British Supersport championship.

A really good start from the front of row two saw Ben Currie immediately up the third behind championship contenders Luke Stapleford and Tom Booth-Amos as the trio went on to pull a gap.

But there was drama on lap six as Stapleford lost the front of his Kawasaki and crashed out from the lead at Charlies promoting Ben up to second behind Booth-Amos.

Currie kept the pressure on Booth-Amos, only for the Kawasaki rider to crash out on lap 11 at the same spot as Stapleford, promoting Currie to the lead.

With a 5.6s advantage over the rest of the field, Currie was able to manage the gap for the final quarter of the race take a double consecutive win to the delight of his team.

Ben's four wins in a row sees his gap at the top of the Supersport championship table now extend to 44 points ahead of Rhys Irwin (Suzuki) in second place.

Ben Currie (Oxford Products Racing Ducati #61) - 1st
"You get the win on the previous day, and you’ve got to sleep on that win, and you know you gotta do it again. I was just trying to stay focused and really work on myself, just trying to focus and hit my marks. It's a long championship so you don't want to make mistakes.

That race was geeing up to be a big one. I could tell the boys were really up for that one and pushing the pace from lap one. Luke was trying to break us, and we all went away from the rest of the pack. Unfortunately, I saw so Luke goes down just in front of us and then a few laps later Tom did the exact same thing, and I couldn't believe my luck. I was like well I'm just gonna bring it home.

It's unbelievable, four wins on in a row just out of nowhere. No, not out of nowhere, out of hard work. We've got ourselves an absolute weapon now and feeling super confident so I’m really, really happy.”

A trio of seventh place finishes for Christian Iddon at Cadwell Park

Race 1
The opening British Superbike race at Cadwell Park was a fairly uneventful one for Christian Iddon. The Oxford Products Racing Ducat rider had lined up on the grid in eighth position for the BikeSocial sprint race on Sunday but lost a couple of positions on the opening lap. But by lap four Christian passed Storm Stacey (Kawasaki) for seventh behind championship leader Tommy Bridewell (Ducati), a position that he held until the chequered flag.

Race 2
Christian started the first of the two 18-lap races on Bank Holiday Monday from the middle of Row Two in fifth but dropped down to seventh as the race got underway. On lap five Christian ran straight on at the chicane, with Race Control giving him a two second time penalty. 

The following lap saw Christian lose a position to Glenn Irwin (Ducati) which temporarily demoted him to eighth until race leader Ryan Vickers (Yamaha) crashed out on the same lap. 

Lap nine saw Christian run on at the chicane once more, picking up an additional two second time penalty from Race Control.

Christian went on to take the flag in a consecutive seventh, but his four second penalty did not affect his position as he had built up a gap of 4.833s over Josh Brookes (BMW).

Race 3
The final Superbike race of the weekend mirrored the first with Christian staring from eighth, holding the position as the lights went out. On lap eleven, he passed Stacey to move up into seventh. At this point he was two seconds behind local rider Lee Jackson (Kawasaki), going on to take his third seventh place finish of the weekend.

Christian currently sits ninth in the championship standings, twelve points behind Vickers in ninth but 61 clear of Jack Kennedy (Yamaha) in tenth.

Christian Iddon (Oxford Products Racing Ducati #21) "Not a great weekend, and not what we expect to be fair. It’s just frustrating that we’re quite close to the front, but not at the front. We’re just off the back of the lead group in every race. And that's kind of where we're at, just missing out. But we’re pushing really hard to try and find it.

It's just a little bit frustrating the moment because myself and the team are both capable of more than we're currently showing. Something is just not quite clicking but hopefully we can find that and rectify it for the last few rounds of the season starting at Oulton Park next time out.”

A third consecutive Supersport win for Ben Currie

Ben Currie arrived at Cadwell Park on a high after doing the double on his Panigale V2 last time out at Thruxton. And The Oxford Products Racing Ducati rider’s weekend got off to a great start at the Lincolnshire circuit, topping the opening FP1 session, finishing third in FP2 and going on to qualify on pole for the 12-lap Sprint Race.

Ben got good drive as the lights went out to secure the holeshot from pole and by the time he started his second lap he’d created a 0.672s gap over championship contender Rhys Iwrin (Suzuki) in second.

That gap had dropped to 0.4s approaching half race-race distance only for Irwin to crash out unhurt at Barn. This gave Currie a gap of over a second and half over Luke Stapleford and Tom Booth-Amos on their chasing Kawasakis. Ben managed the gap brilliantly starting the twelfth and last lap with a second in hand, and despite a back marker coming into play in the last section of the circuit he took the chequered flag and a third consecutive win, extending his championship lead over Irwin to 39 points.

Ben Currie (Oxford Products Racing Ducati #61) – 1st
“It’s hard around here. You’ve got to try and conserve some energy a little bit because once you start getting ragged, she's a really long lap around here. I caught the lapper at the mountain section, which I thought is not good timing because you cannot pass there. But fortunately enough I nipped inside in the hairpin and brought it home. But then I really lost the front in the last turn, so I nearly had flashbacks of Donington when I had a lead of three and half seconds and crashed on the last lap! 

I didn’t know Rhys had crashed out during the race but on the cool down lap I saw him sitting on the hay bales so shame to see Rhys go down like that. Obviously he was the guy behind me pressuring me at the start. I hope he's alright for tomorrow and we can keep going. 

Huge credit to the boys, three on the bounce, couldn't be more happy. The boys are just giving me the best bike to ride each weekend now and we can just keep this momentum going to tomorrow and hopefully beyond. 

Huge thanks to everyone that stayed up at home and tuning in live and to all my sponsors for helping me out. Roll on tomorrow."

Thruxton race report

Thruxton has been kind to us this year… sort of.

SBK

Christian Iddon showed great pace all weekend at the teams’ local round at Thruxton and held those stable lap times throughout all the races.

For everyone unfamiliar with Thruxton circuit, once the lead group break away it’s hard to regain the gap so qualifying is key. Unfortunately, we had a terrible qualifying and started 17th on the grid making Christian's job a lot harder.

I think we recovered well, and his pace was good, scoring points in all three races (13th/9th/10th) and finishing Sunday's set of races as top Ducati.

We are now ninth in the championship and now focus on Cadwell Park in two weeks’ time.

SSP

Ben Currie also showed good pace all weekend and qualifying 4th ahead of Saturday race in which Ben took his maiden victory on the Ducati V2!

His win marked the first time Ducati has won a British Supersport race since 2006 when Sean Emmett won at Croft.

But Ben's times unfortunately only secured us seventh on the grid for the Sunday race so we knew he had some work to do. It was a tremendous race and Ben wasn’t looking clear to win but with three laps to go Ben made his move from fourth to first and lead the rest of the way bringing home Ducati’s first ever double podium slot at Thruxton racing circuit!

We are currently leading the Supersport championship by 14 points and have confidence moving to Cadwell.

BTC

Ollie Walker was also back on form at Thruxton, staying inside the top 5 all weekend and finishing 4th in Saturday’s race after losing the lead group.

Sunday was a new day and Ollie fought hard from the start of the race to keep with the main pack and the top four broke away from the rest of the field, Ollie took 2nd place with an awesome move into the last set of corners.

Currently 6th in the championship, his next outing will be at Oulton Park on the 17th of September.

Christian Iddon wraps up a great weekend at Brands with a fourth

A third consecutive podium just eluded Christian Iddon in the final British Superbike race at Brands Hatch today. The Oxford Products Racing Ducati rider had started the 20-lap race on the front row of the grid in third, and although he slotted into fourth in the opening lap, he was out front and leading by lap two.

By half-race distance Iddon was 0.185s ahead of BeerMonster Ducati duo Tommy Bridewell and Glenn Irwin to lead a Ducati 1-2-3 on track. 

Bridewell moved into the lead on lap 12. And when Irwin made a move at Surtees three laps later, Iddon was forced wide with Ryan Vickers (LAMI OMG Racing Yamaha) taking advantage and demoting Iddon a further place to fourth.

The riders ultimately finished the race in the same positions, with Iddon just off the podium. But this weekend has been his strongest one yet this season, with a pole and front row starting positions, and two trophies to take home.

Christian Iddon (Oxford Products Racing Ducati #21) – 4th
“We’ve had a really good weekend. From the first Free Practice I felt comfortable on the bike. I stayed out more or less, my first run was 17 laps, just because I felt alright and there was no point pulling in. 

When you start a weekend off, and you get your laps in, and you can work on yourself it’s good. I wasn’t necessarily super quick, but I knew we had some pace. 

Then we had a wet qualifying, and I made an error, using the hard tyre because I didn’t think it was going to rain as much as it did. I didn’t think it was a gamble but clearly it was because it was wrong. Everyone else who used the hard tyre struggled so it was definitely the wrong choice. 

And then we had that first wet race. I gave myself a lot of hard work starting from eleventh. We had a chance to win that. That’s a bit unfair to say to the two guys that beat me. I didn’t beat them. The race was shortened, so you just don’t know. But equally I could have ended up on my arse! But we’ll take that first podium of the year.

And that race gave me pole. And that’s really the difference. Since Knockhill, Snetterton and here we’ve had the pace to run at the front anyway. I’ve just not been at the front to do it. Starting from pole, and from the third in the second race today, gives you that opportunity to be at, and get out at the front. 

We made a change for the last race today and I felt happy enough, I wanted to lead. I made some good moves, made three or four passes and got in the lead and felt happy, wanted to be there. And then Tommy got through again and I knew that was going to be the telling point. He did two laps, not very quick, he rolled for them. I was a bit worried because I didn’t know how close of a group the riders behind were going to be, so I was almost willing him to go faster. Then he dropped the hammer and when he did, I had something for him and a feeling we could do something. My plan was I was going to do Tommy, but Glenn got me, ran me a bit deep and Ryan came through. Just ended up in a bit of a scrap, which is fine, it’s racing. I was just on the wrong end of it. I need to be the giver, not the taker, it’s much more fun! 

With three of four laps to go I really lost the front at Paddock, a big old fold. I stayed on it but ran wide and lost half a second. And then I started to push in the wrong places to try and recover that time and ended up losing a bit more time. So the gap at the end was a bit bigger than it should have been. I would have liked to have stayed in that fight. I think us guys at the front had the ability to step up the pace for those last laps but I just sort of lost that group because of one mistake. That’s all it takes. But I made the mistake so it is what it is, and I need to improve. 

It's funny. The first race this weekend was our best, but of our two dry ones the last one was the best, I just didn’t end up with a trophy. That’s racing. It’s not just about how good your bike is and how good you feel. It’s about making it happen and I didn’t quite make it count in the last one. But it’s still been a really positive weekend, I’ve felt good on the bike and team has worked fantastic all weekend. It’s all good!” 

Double Supersport podium for Ben Currie after a consecutive second place at Brands

en Currie got off to a flying start on his Panigale V2 during Sunday’s Supersport race at Brands Hatch, launching his Oxford Products Racing Ducati from third on the grid to take the holeshot and race lead.

On lap three Rhys Irwin (Astron JJR Suzuki) momentarily passed Ben. But he was able to make a move stick after Ben had a moment exiting Graham Hill Bend on lap six.

The duo cleared off at the front and by half race distance had built a up a gap of almost three seconds. Ben stuck with Rhys until the very end but was unable to make a move, crossing the line second to take a consecutive second place finish.

Ben currently leaves Brands leading the Quattro British Supersport Championship with 194 points, while Rhys Irwin and Tom Booth-Amos sit second and third with 188 and 178 points respectively.

Ben Currie (Oxford Products Racing Ducati #61) – 2nd
“That was a classic V2 verses in-line four. The track was sweet in two halves. I was strong in one half, Rhys was strong in the other. Just that one section out of Druids he put three-four bike lengths on me every lap. It meant I had to work for the rest of the lap really hard to try and catch him. I was on the absolute limit. I have to give credit to him, he was riding awesome. It looked like he was going to make a mistake. A couple of little apexes he missed, I thought he's gonna run wide, he's gonna run wide, stay there. But he did a splendid job and hats off to him, credit where credits due.

Massive thanks to my guys, they gave me a bike to win with this weekend. Like Snetterton we’re carrying some momentum and hopefully we can just continue this now and get to some tracks that maybe I'm strong everywhere and we can get that first elusive win. It's coming. I'm happy, I'm enjoying my racing, so that's all you can ask for.”