Another win for Tom Neave and Honda Racing at Silverstone

Race Report
It's been a successful day in the Silverstone office for the Honda Racing team as Tom Neave added another race win to his 2020 tally aboard the all-new CBR1000RR-R Fireblade SP, further extending his lead in the Pirelli National Superstock 1000 Championship. 

With near-perfect conditions at the 1.6-mile circuit, Tom has been on the pace throughout practice sessions and qualified fourth for today's opening race. Getting a good start off the line, Tom remained in the leading group and set about tracking down a podium spot. 

Eventually taking the lead, Tom's race wasn't made easy as championship rival Chrissy Rouse was hot on his heels and the pair enjoyed a good battle to the chequered flag. Tom finished 0.650s ahead of Chrissy, to take his third win of the season and increasing his championship lead by 10 points. He also set a new Superstock 1000 lap record on the second lap, and will start tomorrow's race from pole. 

Teammate Davey Todd rode a heroic race after a technical issue off the start line pushed him back to 23rd place. Pushing lap by lap, Davey made his way though the pack to finish 11th, just missing out on a place in the top-10 by only 0.130s.

Andrew and Glenn Irwin enjoyed a solid first race, where they finished fourth and fifth respectively in the opening Bennetts British Superbike Championship race. At the start of the 25-lap race, the brothers launched off the line and it was Andrew leading with Glenn in second. By the fourth lap, Glenn had snatched the lead from Andrew and the Honda duo had some work to do holding off the chasing pack. 

On the eighth lap Andrew ran wide and dropped back into eighth place, but dug deep and set about making up the lost places to eventually cross the line fifth. Glenn fought hard to protect his lead, but during the closing stages of the race dropped back due to tyre degradation, to cross the line fourth and further extended his championship lead by 30 points. 

Tomorrow (Sunday 6 September) see's two more Superbike races at 12.15 and 16.30 at Silverstone's national circuit, with one more Superstock race at 13.55.

Andrew Irwin

I have to take today's race as a positive, the past three races we've had, the results weren't fantastic so it's better than those. I led a race again which was a nice feeling after a difficult period, unfortunately I made a mistake around lap ten, which lost me a couple of seconds and I lost touch with the leaders. I think all in all it was a good race and we can take the positives from it and come back stronger for tomorrow's two longer races. 

Glenn Irwin

Today in terms of the championship it was a really good race, I'm happy with that side of things and also happy with the fourth. I'm a little disappointed having led the race, but we have something to work on for tomorrow's longer races. It's a positive day, no trophy for this one but we extend our championship lead by 30 points and as I keep saying, if we take it race by race and can extend the points lead each time we're doing a good job. So 30 is good and we'll try and increase it more tomorrow. 

Tom Neave

I've not found myself in this position before so it's all a bit surreal! We've got some really good momentum going now and I'm really enjoying riding the new Fireblade, the whole team is working together really well and we're just going to keep our head down, feet on the floor and keep doing what we're doing. We have another race tomorrow, but I'm just treating each race as a fresh start and thinking race by race, and trying not to think about the championship too much and just keep enjoying it.

Davey Todd

It was a real shame we had a small issue at the start, I was so far back in the pack and it just made the job pretty hard from 23rd. I made a strong charge back through and showed we have the race-long pace to be running at the front. Tomorrow we still have our work cut out starting 11th, trying to do a lap in traffic also isn't the easiest thing in the world, but it'll be easier than today! We'll see what we can do tomorrow, we'll be stronger, we don't need to do a huge amount of changes to the bike so we'll be ready to go and try again. 

Team Manager Havier Beltran

We had another win with Tom in the Superstock championship today, I'm really pleased with him as he used his head and came though from fourth to take the win and won comfortably, and in control which is a real testament to the effort and work he's putting in. Davey had an issue off the start, which we're looking into and will get resolved for the morning, it was difficult for him coming through the field in the traffic, but we'll move on for tomorrow. Andrew and Glenn had a great result, it was good to see Andrew finish a race, pushing and making moves on people with confidence and drive, and it's going to start to come back together for him. Glenn still leads the series, but we do have some work to do and improve the settings ahead of tomorrow's two races. 

National Superstock 2020

Silverstone National, Race 1

Pos. Name No. Team Constructor Time/Gap Pts.
1 Tom Neave 68 Honda Racing UK Honda 22:02.220 25
2 Chrissy Rouse 69 Crowe Performance BMW +0.650 20
3 Danny Kent 52 Morello IMR by CPD Kawasaki +5.153 16
4 Damon Rees 92 Astro-JJR BMW BMW +6.226 13
5 Lewis Rollo 6 IN Competition/Aprilia Aprilia +6.524 11
6 Fraser Rogers 89 Morello IMR by CPD Kawasaki +9.214 10
7 Ian Hutchinson 44 Edwards Yamaha Yamaha +9.316 9
8 Shane Richardson 28 Astro-JJR BMW BMW +13.061 8
9 Billy McConnell 3 OMG Racing Yamaha +1 lap 7
10 Dan Linfoot 4 Bathams BMW Motorrad BMW +1 lap 6
11 Davey Todd 74 Honda Racing UK Honda +1 lap 5
12 Luke Hedger 12 CPD Kawasaki Kawasaki +1 lap 4
13 Jordan Weaving 34 Jones Dorling Racing Honda +1 lap 3
14 Shaun Winfield 81 TAG Racing Honda +1 lap 2

British Superbike 2020

Silverstone National, Round 7

Pos. Name No. Team Constructor Time/Gap Pts.
1 Tarran Mackenzie McAMS Yamaha Yamaha 22:27.214 25
2 Kyle Ryde 77 Buildbase Suzuki Suzuki +0.105 20
3 Jason O'Halloran 22 McAMS Yamaha Yamaha +0.446 16
4 Glenn Irwin Honda Racing UK Honda +1.855 13
5 Andrew Irwin 18 Honda Racing UK Honda +4.362 11
6 Josh Brookes 25 Visiontrack Ducati Ducati +4.944 10
7 Lee Jackson 14 Rapid Fulfillment FS-3 Kawasaki Kawasaki +6.293 9
8 Christian Iddon 21 Visiontrack Ducati Ducati +7.585 8
9 Danny Buchan 83 Rapid Fulfillment FS-3 Kawasaki Kawasaki +7.661 7
10 Tommy Bridewell Oxford Products Racing Ducati Ducati +7.797 6
11 Luke Mossey 12 Rich Energy OMG Racing BMW +7.877 5
12 Bradley Ray 28 SYNETIQ BMW Motorrad BMW +8.103 4
13 Hector Barbera 80 Rich Energy OMG Racing BMW +8.713 3
14 Peter Hickman 60 Global Robots BMW BMW +16.571 2
15 Ryan Vickers 7 RAF Regular and Reserve Kawasaki +21.377 1