Sensational wins for the all-new Fireblade at Snetterton

Race Report
The Honda Racing team is leaving Snetterton leading both the Bennetts British Superbike and the National Superstock 1000 Championships, after Glenn Irwin and Tom Neave took sensational wins in both classes aboard the brand-new Honda CBR1000RR-R Fireblade SP. 

In the first race of the day Glenn crossed the line second, to take his fourth podium of the season. Starting from pole, after getting the fastest lap in yesterday's opening race, he was in the podium fight from the off and just missed out on the win by 0.490s. 

For the final race of the day Glenn lined up ninth, but soon made his way through the pack and by lap seven he was in the podium top-three. Over the next three laps he set his sights on the front and made a pass on Christian Iddon to snatch the top spot. Glenn crossed the line to take his first win of the 2020 season, 1.138s ahead of Christian Iddon and Tommy Bridewell's Ducatis. 

Extending his championship lead over his rivals by 23 points, Glenn also claimed the Monster Energy Race of Aces trophy, as well as the Bennetts British Superbike Championship fans voting him Bennetts Rewards Rider of the round.  

Teammate Andrew Irwin started the final race of the day from the second row after good pace in the second race. Pushing hard over the 16 laps, he collected valuable championship points, but lacking race data he suffered front tyre issues and came home eighth. Andrew remains in the top-six in the championship standings with 58 points. 

Over on the Superstock side of the garage Tom Neave took the winning tally of the new Fireblade to five wins so far this season across the BSB and Superstock classes. Making some changes for this morning's warm-up Tom was feeling confident for the 12-lap race and starting from seventh he wanted his second race win. 

Cutting through the highly competitive Superstock 1000 field, Tom made up places with the start/finish line as his area of attack and on the penultimate lap he took the lead, where he eventually crossed the line to take his second win of the season and extending his championship points tally. 

Davey Todd is leaving Snetterton after a solid round, which saw him well in the mix as he continues his return to short circuit racing. Following his ninth and 10th place finishes last time out, he crossed the line seventh scoring his highest place finish so far this season.

The team will now look forward to the next round of the 2020 Bennetts British Superbike Championship, which takes place in two weekends time at Silverstone National on 4/5/6 September.

Andrew Irwin

You can look at this weekend and take all the negatives, or you can focus on the positives. I came here and we were always going to struggle starting from the back of the grid after the penalty from Donington. In today's third race, I wrecked the tyre trying too hard, we missed out on information from yesterday's race and the first race today, but it's a weekend where we had pace and we showed that. We can go to Silverstone now and continue to show the pace we do have, we're one of the fastest teams' in this class, and we have to keep believing and getting stronger. 

Glenn Irwin

Getting my first win feels really good, it almost feels as good as the second places we've had! The seconds have felt like victories as we've always extended our championship lead, but this one was super-sweet, I really wanted that win and enjoyed how well the Fireblade was working. Getting the win is sweet and it's a testament to how hard the team and myself work. The team is amazing there's no egos whatsoever and everyone from either side of the garage, the Superstock 1000 team; we all work together, I'm really enjoying it and keeping our feet on the ground. 

Tom Neave

I'm absolutley over the moon to be able to turn the weekend around with a win, I felt like I was really up against it until warm-up this morning. Fair play to the team for turning the bike upside down and giving me a package that worked and gave me the confidence to get the job done, as soon as I did that time in warm-up I knew I could fight for a win, so it gave me that boost I needed. I kept my head down the whole race and timed everything to perfection. I knew where I was weak and strong, and at the last turn I was able to get lined up to get the best drive up the start/finish straight, so it was a case of sitting on the back wheel into the last corner and slipstreaming into the line and playing my cards right. The new Fireblade is so strong and it was everything I wanted a bike to be in that race. 

Davey Todd

I'm a little disappointed to be honest, we had unreal pace - pace to win the race, to be at the front and at least battling for the win. At the start I got pushed wide at turn 2, which set us back a little bit, I tried to make my way through and I was just eager to get there, so made a few silly mistakes which set us back a bit more. We can take the positives from it though, the Fireblade was great it worked really well and the last four laps were my strongest laps of the race, it's working well for race distance, we've just got to get in the mix a little more. I'm still learning race craft being back at BSB, so that's the main thing, if I keep working on that, the bike is good, we have pace and lap times so we come back next time stronger.  

Team Manager Havier Beltran

We left Donington Park leading BSB and joint-first in the Superstock championship and unfortunately this weekend we have had a few issues in the Superbike class, we're going to work through them and we believe we can come out the other side fighting strong. We now leave Snetterton leading both the Superstock and Superbike classes, and what another strong weekend for the all-new Fireblade and the team. We know we've got some work to do, and know we have areas to improve, but this is a great start to the championship for Honda Racing. 


British Superbike 2020

Snetterton 300, Round 6

Pos. Name No. Team Constructor Time/Gap Pts.
1 Glenn Irwin Honda Racing UK Honda 29:03.387 25
2 Tommy Bridewell Oxford Products Racing Ducati Ducati +1.138 20
3 Christian Iddon 21 Visiontrack Ducati Ducati +1.441 16
4 Lee Jackson 14 Rapid Fulfillment FS-3 Kawasaki Kawasaki +2.255 13
5 Josh Brookes 25 Visiontrack Ducati Ducati +2.300 11
6 Tarran Mackenzie McAMS Yamaha Yamaha +2.359 10
7 Jason O'Halloran 22 McAMS Yamaha Yamaha +3.462 9
8 Andrew Irwin 18 Honda Racing UK Honda +6.510 8
9 Bradley Ray 28 SYNETIQ BMW Motorrad BMW +7.303 7
10 Kyle Ryde 77 Buildbase Suzuki Suzuki +7.402 6
11 Danny Buchan 83 Rapid Fulfillment FS-3 Kawasaki Kawasaki +13.546 5
12 Luke Mossey 12 Rich Energy OMG Racing BMW +17.206 4
13 Gino Rea 44 Buildbase Suzuki Suzuki +17.501 3
14 Joe Francis 40 Lloyd and Jones Bowker Motorrad BMW +20.888 2
15 Hector Barbera 80 Rich Energy OMG Racing BMW +25.691 1

British Superbike 2020

Snetterton 300, Round 5

Pos. Name No. Team Constructor Time/Gap Pts.
1 Josh Brookes 25 Visiontrack Ducati Ducati 29:00.696 25
2 Glenn Irwin Honda Racing UK Honda +0.490 20
3 Tommy Bridewell Oxford Products Racing Ducati Ducati +0.696 16
4 Lee Jackson 14 Rapid Fulfillment FS-3 Kawasaki Kawasaki +0.853 13
5 Christian Iddon 21 Visiontrack Ducati Ducati +2.682 11
6 Kyle Ryde 77 Buildbase Suzuki Suzuki +2.966 10
7 Tarran Mackenzie McAMS Yamaha Yamaha +3.889 9
8 Jason O'Halloran 22 McAMS Yamaha Yamaha +9.549 8
9 Luke Mossey 12 Rich Energy OMG Racing BMW +11.845 7
10 Bradley Ray 28 SYNETIQ BMW Motorrad BMW +19.310 6
11 Peter Hickman 60 Global Robots BMW BMW +20.652 5
12 Gino Rea 44 Buildbase Suzuki Suzuki +22.248 4
14 Joe Francis 40 Lloyd and Jones Bowker Motorrad BMW +26.257 2
15 Alex Olsen 75 Global Robots BMW BMW +34.171 1

National Superstock 2020

Snetterton 300, Race

Pos. Name No. Team Constructor Time/Gap Pts.
1 Tom Neave 68 Honda Racing UK Honda 2 22:12.670 25
2 Chrissy Rouse 69 Crowe Performance BMW +0.094 20
3 Billy McConnell 3 OMG Racing Yamaha +0.487 16
4 Matt Truelove 59 Crowe Performance BMW +1.218 13
5 Tim Neave 14 Hawk Racing Suzuki +1.308 11
6 Lewis Rollo 6 IN Competition/Aprilia Aprilia +1.860 10
7 Davey Todd 74 Honda Racing UK Honda +2.199 9
8 Fraser Rogers 89 Morello IMR by CPD Kawasaki +4.549 8
9 Danny Kent 52 Morello IMR by CPD Kawasaki +5.033 7
10 Damon Rees 92 Astro-JJR BMW BMW +8.323 6
11 Joe Collier 11 Jones Dorling Racing Honda +15.413 5
12 Ian Hutchinson 44 Edwards Yamaha Yamaha +16.204 4
13 Jordan Weaving 34 Jones Dorling Racing Honda +19.800 3
14 Brayden Elliott 51 No Bull Racing CFS Filtration Suzuki Suzuki +19.829 2