Brands Hatch serves up a stern test for Honda Racing

Race Report Sunday 27th July 2025

The closing day of Round 5 of this year’s Bennetts British Superbike Championship (BSB) and Quattro British Supersport Championship at Brands Hatch served up an array of challenges for Honda Racing.

Dry weather conditions before the weekend’s second BSB race gave cause for optimism, with Tommy Bridewell’s Honda Fireblade on the second row of the grid in sixth place and team-mate Andrew Irwin just one place behind.

However, Bridewell flicked into a high-side crash as he accelerated out of Clearways bend at the end of the third lap, leaving Irwin, who had been running close behind, to race onward to an eventual seventh place.

After a visit to the medical centre for a comprehensive check-up, Bridewell withdrew from the final race of the weekend as a precaution. This left Irwin to fly the flag for Honda Racing on a track which had damp patches, and it was the variable grip level that caught him out and triggered a violent crash, from which he emerged uninjured.

In the weekend’s second Supersport race, heavy rain fell before the start, making tyre choices a lottery. Dean Harrison, starting his Honda CBR600RR from the second row, opted to go with wet tyres front and rear but, soon after the start, the rain eased and forced him to maintain a slower pace than those on wet front/intermediate rear tyres.

Among those on the optimum combination was defending champion Jack Kennedy, who started 15th after crashing out of the lead in Race 1 on Saturday. He climbed to sixth by the chequered flag, followed by Harrison in 12th.

Finally, the Honda Racing UK entry of 23-time TT winner John McGuinness MBE enjoyed another strong performance in the Superstock race. Starting 19th, McGuinness was in the thick of several battles before crossing the line in 17th place.

Tommy Bridewell

“It was a painful end to a disappointing weekend. I’m taking a lot of chances on the bike at the moment because the gap between us and the fastest guys isn’t getting any smaller no matter what we do. It’s massively frustrating, there’s very little else to say about where we are currently, but we will keep working to find a solution.”

Andrew Irwin

“The weekend was going entirely to plan, we were building off the back of finishing all three races at Knockhill and just chipping away at lap times and letting the lap times and the results come to us. In the third race, I felt completely comfortable in sixth place. I was in the lead pack and just looking to see what sort of opportunity might arise when out of nowhere, so it seemed, I was suddenly thrown quite a long way up off the bike, which was totally destroyed. It’s a big disappointment.”

Jack Kennedy

“If you look at the progression from 15th on the grid to sixth it’s good in those tricky conditions. I had to ride within myself and not risk going down, because after crashing out yesterday we just had to bring it home. I certainly didn’t want to wreck another bike after the lads worked so hard to build me a new one last night and again replacing the frame today between warm-up and the race. Massive thanks to them for all their work. We’ve had such bad luck with the weather, it rained heavily immediately before each of our races, and made things very tricky. We’ll take the positives out of it and move on to Thruxton.”

Dean Harrison

“The weekend as a whole hasn’t been too bad. We definitely had the worst of the weather conditions in Supersport, compared to every other class on the schedule this weekend. Still, I scored points in both races and while the positions haven’t been ideal it has been a bit of a lottery. Tyre choice was crucial today but the bike’s in one piece and it’s got to be onwards and upwards from here.”

John McGuinness MBE

“For me, it’s good news. Being in the mix for points and battling away with these younger guys was good. It was good racing, no paint was traded, and in the end I went faster again in this race than I did yesterday. I went faster over a lap yesterday than I ever have before at Brands Hatch and today the overall race time was faster, so that’s progress. The bike’s never missed a beat across all the sessions of the weekend and I kept it on its wheels, so it’s wins all round for us, really.”

Team Manager Havier Beltran

“It’s been a particularly challenging weekend for us at a circuit where traditionally Honda performs strongly. In Supersport, Jack’s team really had their work cut out after his crash on Saturday. First of all the bike had to be rebuilt to get it on track on Sunday morning for Warm-up, when it became clear that actually the core of the bike, the frame, needed replacing, so they had to strip it and effectively build a new bike in two hours. Seeing the team rise to challenges like this gives confidence that we can push through an event like this and come out fighting at the next round.”