Honda Racing UK chases title to end 2025 season
The final Bennetts British Superbike Championship (BSB) race weekend of the season takes place at Brands Hatch this weekend (October 17-19), and Honda Racing aims to add to its impressive haul of silverware from circuit and road racing in 2025.
Jack Kennedy, racing on the Honda CBR600RR, will be gunning for his sixth career British Supersport Championship crown. With four victories so far in 2025 - at Snetterton, Knockhill, Assen and Oulton Park - the Irish charger enters this final weekend in third position in the standings, 23 points behind the championship leader.
With 35 points for a win in both of the races at Brands Hatch, and as many as 13 riders to have stood on the podium so far this season, the Supersport title battle remains wide open. Kennedy is relishing the prospect of putting his title-winning experience to work on a circuit that he loves.
In BSB, Tommy Bridewell and Dean Harrison will put the Honda Fireblades through their paces in a bid to add to the team’s achievements through the year.
Bridewell, the 2023 BSB champion, has taken one race win so far this season, on Honda Racing’s home ground at Cadwell Park, together with podium finishes at Snetterton, Knockhill and Thruxton. He currently stands equal fourth in the championship points, and will be looking to continue the positive gains in performance that the team has made.
A late call-up to Honda’s BSB squad has seen Harrison jump adeptly onto the Fireblade, having campaigned another CBR600RR in Supersport alongside Kennedy for the majority of the season. Spearheading Honda’s road racing programme has meanwhile brought the Yorkshireman podium results in every race of 2025, crowned by two historic Isle of Man TT wins in the Superstock class.
An injury sidelined Honda’s regular BSB front-runner Andrew Irwin for the final events of the year, but on Harrison’s BSB return at Oulton Park two weeks ago, he delivered everything that the team asked of him in difficult conditions.
Finally, the team will be joined for a third time this season by a Superstock variant of the Honda Fireblade, entered for 23-time Isle of Man TT winner John McGuinness MBE.
The Morecambe Missile has enjoyed an extremely competitive season so far on the roads and on his short circuit outings, setting a personal best lap time and taking points when he raced on the Superstock Fireblade at Brands Hatch in July. A repeat of that sort of form will be valuable as he prepares to celebrate 30 years at the forefront of motorcycle racing in 2026.
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Jack Kennedy
“I’m excited and really looking forward to it. When we were at Brands Hatch in the summer, it really was mixed - both the weather and the bike - which meant that our results were also up and down. We had a bit of a handling issue that we’ve now got on top of, which is what makes me excited to go back, because I love racing on this circuit. My approach is just to focus on me, and if we do what we set out to do then even if the championship doesn’t come I want us to leave happy that there’s nothing else we could have done. That’s all that I can control, but I’ve been here before and I can handle the pressure so just bring it on.”
Tommy Bridewell
“Brands Hatch in the middle of the season was a bit of a disappointment, our pace wasn’t as strong as we were hoping, and then ending the weekend with a big crash wasn’t the best! But I always enjoy the circuit, I enjoy going there fighting for the title most of all, as we did last year, and we’re still eager to end the season in the best possible way. Everything feels really positive in the team, and I think we’ll just take that through to the best results that we can get before the close season. The weather has turned, it’s going to be cold and tyre preparation will be key, but we just obviously all want to finish the season in as strong a position as possible.”
Dean Harrison
“We’re all set, Oulton Park was a bit of an eye-opener - getting back onto a Superbike for the first time in a few months and doing so in the middle of an Atlantic storm! Hopefully the weather will be a bit more settled at Brands Hatch, but it’s so changeable at the moment that I won’t really check it until we’re almost ready to go. I do like the circuit, it’s a great challenge, but I’ve always found it more difficult than many short tracks and there are a couple of places that I really want to work on in the lap to get the best out of the weekend.”
John McGuinness MBE
“It’s been a busy season one way and another, racing on the roads and at BSB weekends, then adding on historic and clubman events, and truck racing. This will be my last race meeting of 2025, and after all of that, I’m pleased to be back in the factory Honda team at Brands Hatch. It’s a fantastic track, really rewarding when you get it right, and taking some good points home from there in the summer was one of the highlights of my year. Superstock is really competitive, the riders are on those things week-in, week-out and they’re big, hairy bikes that command your attention, so a good weekend will set us up nicely for the off-season.”
Team Principal Neil Fletcher
“To say that the season has flown past would be an understatement, but we travel to Brands Hatch for the 2025 finale with a lot of work having gone into the team at every level and in every class. Nothing would make me, or our fans, happier than to see Jack bring home another title on the CBR600RR, and that is obviously high on our wish list. BSB also brings us another opportunity to benchmark our progress as we look to end the year strongly, and for John to be out and competitive on the Fireblade in Superstock will be a treat for all.”