The opening round of the British Superbike Showdown has been all about Tommy Hill. Hill was the fastest during free practice, took the Swan Combi Roll for Pole, and now has secured the first race win at Croft.
Hill only had competition from Michael Laverty during today's BSB race, who was able to stick with the season leader up until the final lap. Behind Laverty, there was a ten second gap until Stuart Easton crossed the line.
"It's a good start to the Showdown for me that's for sure,” Hill said. “I felt comfortable during the race and I just chipped away and tried to keep Michael behind me. I was protecting my lines and just tried to keep my cool. We made some drastic changes this morning, then reverted back to the original settings. We have a few tweaks for race two but more of the same would be good for me."
Simon Andrews and Dan Linfoot both finished ahead of the next title fighter, Josh Brookes. Brookes' sixth place finish definitely wasn't what he was aiming for, but Brookes fared much better then the rest of the title fighters.
Michael Rutter was holding onto third place before he crashed out of contention with 7 laps to go. Alastair Seeley suffered from a similar fate, also earning a DNF for the day.
Ryuichi Kiyonari, Hill's biggest contender, managed to finish the race, but couldn't break into the top ten.
British Superbike – Croft – Race 1
- Tommy Hill (Worx Crescent Suzuki)
- Michael Laverty (Relentless Suzuki by TAS) +0.155s
- Stuart Easton (Swan Honda) +10.177s
- Simon Andrews (MSS Colchester Kawasaki) +13.512s
- Dan Linfoot (Motorpoint Yamaha) +14.742s
- Josh Brookes (HM Plant Honda) +15.407s
- Loris Baz (Motorpoint Yamaha) +21.044s
- John Laverty (Buildbase Kawasaki) +25.983s
- Chris Walker (Sorrymate.com SMT Honda) +26.304s
- Gary Mason (MSS Colchester Kawasaki) +26.670s
