The crowds turned out for the Dutch round of the British Superbike Championship at Assen’s famous TT Circuit. Christian Iddon battled for two top ten finishes while still nursing the after effects of a broken collarbone. In an incident packed race two, he worked his way through the pack to fourth place from a P11 grid start. A broken sensor during lap 15 saw him drop back and he eventually crossed the line in tenth.
Christian sits just nine points shy of the Riders’ Cup leader with three races remaining at the final round of the British Superbike Championship at Brands Hatch GP on October 14 and 15.
Team-mate Michael Laverty showed great pace in race one but tyre wear issues in the latter part of the contest saw him drop back and finish up in 11th. Again the Northern Irish rider suffered further bad luck in race two after being clipped by another rider in the opening lap causing him to crash out at turn four.
Philip Neill – Team Manager said: “Another difficult Superbike round for Tyco BMW this weekend. Michael is having a run of bad luck after crashing in race two following a coming together on track and once again his lap times in race one warranted a better result than 11th. Christian is to be commended once again for returning to the track only a few weeks after his collarbone break and without surgery. Again his pace and effort deserved a better result in both races and without the few problems he encountered I’m certain he would be fighting near the front. Thanks to all our partners and to our guests who joined us over the weekend.”
Christian Iddon – #21 British Superbike said: “I struggled quite a lot throughout free practice sessions with my broken collarbone. I underestimated how difficult it would be, it was actually way worse than Silverstone. So it was a nice surprise that when qualifying came around the bike was good and I didn’t feel too bad. As always it’s super close and we were towards the front of the group which meant I got a good start position for the first race. Fifth was the target for race one and was looking entirely possible, but with a few laps to go I really struggled with tyre wear and dropped back to eighth. I was a little bit further back on the grid for the second race but I made my way through to fourth, I was pretty confident that was where I going to finish up, but towards the end of the race I suffered a broken sensor which knocked me right back to tenth. The bike had been great all weekend and the points do not reflect this or the effort put in, I’m just looking forward to Brands Hatch now and to finish the season as strong as possible.”
And Michael Laverty – #7 British Superbike said: “I was having a good race one, I made my way through to eighth and felt a top six was possible, however, my front tyre had tore around 2/3rd race distance and I limped home in 11th losing the front in most corners. My race two ended on lap one after making a decent start I got tagged by my mate Christian in turn three and ended up on the ground. It was a frustrating end to a weekend that showed promise.”
