Christian Iddon continued his strong start to season as Oulton Park played host to round three of the British Supersport championship. Iddon claimed a 6th and a 5th place in two fiercely contested race at his local track.
Iddon’s pace in qualifying was stunning, as he lapped well inside lap record pace. However, Iddon was not the only rider to do so. The top 7 riders went under the existing lap record, with Jack Kennedy taking pole; a whole 0.9s better than the previous record. Iddon ended up 6th on the grid.
Iddon didn’t make the best of starts in the sprint race, as he found himself caught up in the pack. It took until lap five before he was able to find a way past former team-mate Billy McConnell and in to 6th. By that stage, Iddon had lost touch with the leaders. With clear track ahead of him, Iddon was able to up his pace and close the gap to the group in front. He got the better of his team-mate Richard Cooper to move up to 5th. However, on the final lap a resurgent McConnell forced his way back past Iddon into Hizzy’s, running him onto the grass. Iddon rejoined the circuit and managed to hold on to 6th place across the finish line.
Iddon’s lap time was enough to put him 5th on the grid for the feature race, however he was only 0.055s off the fastest lap of the race.
Keen to get away with the leaders in the feature race, Iddon made a better start and was running in 4th at the end of the opening lap. On lap 6, Iddon overtook Glen Richards at Island Bend to take 3rd. Richards was soon to get his own back as he retook the position into Old Hall at the start of lap 8. Iddon also then lost out to Sam Warren on the same lap, as he dropped back to 5th. He remained in 5th until a red flag brought the feature race to a premature end after just 10 laps.
Iddon commented: “It was a good weekend with regards the pace we had. The Oxford TAG Triumph was fantastic again and I was lapping under the lap record.”
“I am a bit disappointed with the results because with those lap times you expect be fighting for wins, but all the boys at the front are going really well. We need to start getting some podiums to boost our championship hopes.”
“In the sprint race I just didn’t get away well enough and gave myself too much to do. I knew some of the other guys had gone with the soft tyre so I suspected that I would have more pace come the end of the race. I got caught behind Billy [McConnell] and then [Richard] Cooper which cost me too much time on the front guys.”
“As it turned out, it appeared that the soft tyre was actually the one performing better at the end of the race. We then thought about whether or not to use the softer tyre for the feature race but I just wasn’t getting the same feeling from the soft as I had been from the harder option. I had set all my fastest laps on the hard, so we stuck with it.”
“I got a better start in the feature race and was in with the lead bunch. I passed Glen [Richards] fairly easily and I was feeling pretty comfortable. I knew we would struggle for grip come the end of the race so I didn’t want to push the tyre too hard. Even with the shortened race the tyre was starting to go. I was spinning up around Druids which was then costing me all the way down into Lodge.”
“We are still 6th in the championship and because no one is dominating every round like last year, it is still fairly close. Hopefully we can move on to the next round at Snetterton and push for our first podium of the season.”
Reported and written by Sam Farrington
Racing will be shown on Eurosport TV.
