Iddon And Brookes Set For Donington Duel

Round five of the 2021 Bennetts British Superbike Championship heads for Donington Park this weekend with the FUCHS SILKOLENE backed duo of Christian Iddon and Josh Brookes hoping to get their title hopes back on course.

Last time out at Thruxton and following a race one podium on Saturday, Tyneside-based Iddon relinquished the championship lead following a tough two races on Sunday, which saw him taken out by another rider in race two, and then battered and bruised, slithered to a ninth-place finish in the damp conditions of the final race.

As a result, Iddon is now 42 points adrift of series leader Jason O’Halloran but more importantly, in the podium credits score which will determine the winner via the Showdown later in the season, the deficit is just 16 points. Either way, Iddon will be looking to close the gap on Paul Bird’s factory-backed VisionTrack Ducati Panigale V4 RR.

For teammate Josh Brookes, the weekend offers another opportunity to kick-start his season after a disappointing start for the twice and defending champion. So far, the Bedfordshire-based Aussie has the best result of fifth place to his name and occupies 12th in the table so having tested various settings at Knockhill last week, is hopeful he can finally turn the corner.

Brookes scored a podium finish on the National circuit layout last season, so he’d be delighted to repeat that whereas this corresponding meeting last year heralded Iddon’s debut for the Lake District-based eight times Bennetts BSB champions. Back then behind closed doors, he scored a pair of fourth-place finishes so will be looking to improve in front of a normal crowd this year.