CHARACTER BUILDING WEEKEND AT SNETTERTON
Tyco BMW riders Tommy Bridewell and Michael Laverty shared fourth placed finishes in today’s British Superbike races during round four at Snetterton, with Alastair Seeley second in the National Superstock 1000 class.
Bridewell was the leading BMW Motorrad S1000RR rider during race one in the Tyco camp, although Laverty was in contention in the early exchanges after a great start. Unfortunately for the Ulsterman he was forced to retire with a mechanical problem from fifth place.
He redeemed himself in the second outing with a strong fourth place just 0.067sec behind third placed man Jason O’Halloran. Bridewell was right behind his Tyco BMW team-mate in fifth and holds the same position in the championship standings. Laverty holds seventh place just outside the magical top six, but will be encouraged by his weekend, and especially the race two performance.
Tommy Bridewell: “It’s fair to say I struggled in the early sessions to find a setting that I was comfortable with, but I did say on Saturday night that we would have to ride hard for fourth place this weekend and we achieved that in race one. All things considered it wasn’t a bad result and we were not that far away from where we need to be in race two. I’m fifth in the championship which keeps me inside that all import top six, but the goal is to get back to where we were at Oulton when we won on the Tyco BMW.”
Michael Laverty: “Snetterton was tougher than I anticipated and fourth place in race two was some consolation after the misfortune we suffered in race one. I really had to ride hard for it today, as I felt I was having to give too much away to my rivals on corner exit. We still have work to do on our base setting with the Tyco BMW S1000RR. The bike certainly has a lot more potential than I’m able to use right now and that for me is frustrating. I want to be fighting for wins and I will not be content until we get there.”
Alastair Seeley: “If I’m honest the result is not good enough. I led for long periods and although I lost my quick shifter at around half distance, I should have covered the pass from Elliott on the last lap. Take nothing away from him he’s riding well but we had an advantage today on the Tyco BMW S1000RR and we didn’t make full use of it. It’s another podium for BMW and our sponsors but one rung lower than where I set my goals for this weekend.”
Philip Neill – Team Manager: “It was a character-building weekend. Each of the BSB tracks throw up a different challenge to teams in terms of set-up and Snetterton certainly proved difficult for us to find the ideal window.
“With everything considered however, we can be very happy with what we achieved. Every weekend we go into new territory with the BMW S1000RR, as being our first year with BMW Motorrad, we are having to collate new information and data at all the circuits.
“All three boys dug deep today and did a good job. Michael had a small technical issue in BSB race one and Alastair had a quick shifter problem, but second place is still a strong result and it augers well for Knockhill in a fortnight’s time.”
For more information please contact – [email protected]
www.tycobmw.com