Stockport Super biker keeps sight on ‘Showdown’

Stockport Superbiker Christian Iddon kept his ‘Showdown’ hopes alive with a pair of solid results in the British Superbike Championship at the latest in the series at Cadwell Park in Lincolnshire.

Iddon, whose sights are firmly set on clawing back the points he needs to get in to the BSB Championship’s ‘Showdown’, had a last minute setback at the Lincolnshire track, when the chain on his bike ‘jumped’ as the Stockport rider was about to go out for the final minutes of Qualifying, leaving him with just a single lap to set ninth fastest on the grid for the first of two races in the East of England.

Stockport Superbiker Christian Iddon

A great opening few laps in race one saw the TYCO BMW rider run as high as fifth place, but he crossed the line on the shirt-tails of Laverty, just 0.064secs behind his former teammate.

Iddon’s race-pace showed, with sixth place on the grid for race two, just a tenth of a second off the pole lap of Lee Jackson. Christian dropped a couple of places , over the first few laps of the race, Tommy Bridewell [Kawasaki] and Jason O’Halloran [Honda] nipping through. As the race progressed Iddon took the opportunity to nick a place back from Bridewell, but couldn’t quite claim the place back off O’Halloran, crossing the line just two-tenths off the Honda’s back wheel. 

“8th and 5th doesn’t sound too bad” admitted Christian, “but that’s my worse points haul of the year, [of the rounds] that I’ve been at. Frustrating. More frustrating as well because I felt like we had good pace all weekend, every time we went out on track the bike got better and better.

“When we got in the race it became apparent that we were weak on the brakes, and that really hindered us. That was the main issue.

” The first race I felt like we had pace for a podium, of not a win, which sounds strange as I was the one being overtaken but I was just a sitting duck in the braking areas and I couldn’t really do anything about it.

“Race two we went back to a different setting ” continued Iddon. “I don’t necessarily think it was better, I should have had the pace to run on my own but I missed a gear that allowed Tommy Bridewell and Jason O’Halloran through.

“Disappointing really, the whole team was a little bit deflated, just because we knew how strong we were and what we could have done.

“We’ve ended up being closer to the top six, eight points away from sixth and twenty-five off fourth. There’s three races at Silverstone, all to play for, the team and I are going to do everything we can. Three races to see who’s going to be title fighters, hopefully it’s us”.

The next meeting at Silverstone, on the 8-10 September, hosts the final three rounds to see who takes part in the Championship’s Showdown – where the top six riders fight it out for the chance to become 2017 BSB Champion.

Photo Credit: Ian Ward