By Dan Moakes
April 13 2012

Brands Hatch was the venue that provided the dramatic British Superbike finale in 2011, with the championship in doubt throughout the last lap of the last race, and the title finally decided in favour of Tommy Hill by a whisker from former GP rider John Hopkins. Brands hosted the 2012 opener in very different weather conditions.

The new season would see a new set of technical rules across the board, with all entrants now having to adopt the more economical Evolution specifications. For the last two years the ‘Evo’ bikes have had their own class within the British Superbike Championship itself, making for a more affordable option for the non-works teams. Evo-spec Superbikes are much closer to the equivalent road-going machines, with only minimal engine tuning, and in particular with standard Electronic Control Units, rather than with fancy electronic aids such as traction control. The playing field should in theory be more level.

Changes in the entry line-up were many, with Crescent Suzuki graduating to the World Championship, and the HRC-backed HM Plant Honda squad also absent after eight years at the front. Significantly, a handful of overseas riders were joining the series for 2012, not least of whom was World Superbike crowd favourite Noriyuki Haga from Japan. Haga is a 43-time race winner, which puts him third in the all-time WSB list, and he has been the title runner-up in 2000, 2007 and 2009. His race wins in that series have included four at Brands in 2004-06; and Haga had also made some BSB wildcard appearances in 2004, with his British-based Team Renegade Ducati.

The championship was to get underway in 2012 with the familiar season opener on the short Brands Hatch Indy circuit, the races taking place on the Monday of the Easter Bank Holiday weekend. Weather conditions were far from perfect, although there was dry running for qualifying. A mix of different bikes would be at the front of the grid, but the number one bike from 2011 was not one of them. Indeed, Yamaha machinery was no better off than sixth, with Haga, Tommy Hill’s new Swan Yamaha team-mate, earning that starting position. The champion himself had suffered an off in qualifying, and would start way back in P29.

Both Honda and Kawasaki saw two of their runners starting ahead of the first Yamaha, but it was a Suzuki man on pole position. Josh Brookes had stayed with TAS Racing and with the GSX-R1000, but with the team now known as Tyco Suzuki. He was joined on the front row of the grid by second man Jon Kirkham on the Samsung Honda, then former champion Shane Byrne (Rapid Solicitors Kawasaki) and Tristan Palmer (GBmoto Racing Honda). For Byrne, this event would see him competing with a Kawasaki for the first time since his BSB début season in 1999.

In front of Haga, the second row was led by French series rookie Freddy Foray (Quattro Plant Kawasaki). Seventh went to Tommy Bridewell, with his Supersonic Racing BMW, and eighth went to the experienced Michael Rutter, with his MSS Bathams Kawasaki. The evergreen Rutter has raced Kawasaki machinery in several past BSB seasons, and started the season looking at a possible sixteenth year in the series with an overall top eight finishing position. Could he possibly go one better than his previous best of series runner-up?

Ninth went to injury comeback man Stuart Easton (Rapid Solicitors Kawasaki), and he was followed by Italian newcomer Luca Scassa and Ian Lowry (both for Padgetts Racing Honda), then Gary Mason (Quattro Plant Kawasaki), Alastair Seeley (Tyco Suzuki), Graeme Gowland (Team WFR Honda), Peter Hickman (MSS Bathams Kawasaki) and BSB favourite Chris Walker (Pr1mo Bournemouth Kawasaki). Both Michael Laverty (now Samsung Honda) and John Laverty (Splitlath Redmond Aprilia) had missed out on getting through to the second part of qualifying.

Brands Hatch
Form guide: BSB wins on both GP and Indy circuits
Shane Byrne · 2003, 2008, 2008, 2008, 2011, 2011, 2011, 2011
Chris Walker · 1998, 1999, 2000
Tommy Hill · 2010, 2011, 2011
Michael Rutter · 2000
Alastair Seeley · 2010
Josh Brookes · 2011
Michael Laverty · 2011

Conditions for race one were very wet, and the start saw Haga get into a slide off the line and lose a number of places. Byrne got away well to take the lead, heading Kirkham, Brookes and Rutter. However, not everyone survived the first lap in such tricky conditions, and some failed to get much further than the first corner. The right-handed Paddock Hill Bend involves a dramatic drop, and this was where Gowland came to grief in an incident with Splitlath Redmond Aprilia rider Florian Marino from France.

On the Supersonic BMW, Swiss rider Patric Muff only got as far as the exit of the right-handed Druids Hill Bend, the second corner. Michael Laverty and Jenny Tinmouth (Hardinge Sorrymate.com Honda) were also involved in one or other of the first lap incidents, with Laverty at least getting his Honda back to the pits. The team worked to fix the damage, but in the end he was unable to make it back out onto the track, where a good lap time would count towards the race two starting grid.

Cautious riding was clearly called for, and with broken bikes to recover it made sense to run the race behind the safety car for a few laps. The restart saw Byrne retain his lead, from Kirkham, Brookes, Rutter, Palmer and Mason. Kawasaki riders were on the move as both Rutter and Mason quickly picked up a place each, with Michael in particular known as a man who goes well in the wet. Mason then advanced to fourth as he went past Brookes on the outside crossing the start-finish line, on the curved and cambered Brabham ‘Straight’.

Multiple Brands Hatch winner Byrne soon lost the lead to Kirkham, who seemed to be able to find more speed with his Honda and started to pull a small gap over the Kawasaki rider. Rutter, Mason, Brookes and Palmer were being followed by Foray and Seeley, with the Frenchman soon to lose out to both Scassa and Dan Linfoot (Buildbase BMW). It was Palmer and Seeley on the move at this stage, both getting past Brookes and then Mason. Then Alastair moved up one more with a pass on the Honda rider on the inside at Druids hairpin. This followed on from Rutter’s move into second on the inside of Byrne over the line.

With the fastest lap so far, Rutter established himself in second behind Kirkham, the next group now in the order Byrne, Seeley, Palmer, Brookes and Mason. However, one-third distance saw Palmer’s strong race end when he ran off course on the outside at the Graham Hill Bend left-hander. Meanwhile, Seeley was showing the form that had taken him to his sole BSB win at this same circuit in similar conditions in 2010. He passed Byrne and closed in on Rutter, but before he could get further another incident caused another safety car period.

Scassa’s chance of a top ten result in his BSB début ended with a crash when he got onto the kerb at the bottom of Paddock Hill. Linfoot crashed soon after, and meanwhile Easton had already withdrawn to the pits on his Kawasaki. These two accidents meant the safety car was out for four more laps, and the second restart saw Brookes get the better of Byrne for fourth; by now they were followed by Lowry and Bridewell. Eighth man James Westmoreland (Team WFR Honda) was about to go wide in Graham Hill Bend, losing places but at least managing to stay on track.

The first three were quite close together now, and a change came when Seeley went to the inside of Rutter for Paddock Hill and took over second position. Druids saw the Ulsterman into first place, braking on the inside of Kirkham, and starting to pull away. Behind, Lowry would soon relieve Byrne of fifth, while fourth man Brookes seemed to be catching Rutter. However, then Josh went straight on at Graham Hill Bend after he saved a moment when the rear broke loose. He crossed the grass but stayed upright, rejoining for the loss of several places.

The final stages of the race saw only three potential winners, as fourth man Lowry lost touch with those ahead. Byrne was fifth, closely followed by Bridewell and Mason, with a bit of a gap to Westmoreland, Foray, Walker and Brookes. At this stage there were crashes for Hill, who had not featured amongst the leading positions, and also for Luke Quigley (GBmoto Racing Honda).

With three laps remaining, Kirkham had got close enough again to attack Seeley at Paddock, with Rutter still trailing the leading pair. The Suzuki rider resisted this move, but on the last lap Jon was as close as he had been to Alastair, trying to apply some pressure. The last action was on the continuous final right-hand bend, that follows round from McLaren through Clearways and Clark and on to the finish. On the wet track, Seeley had to recover a minor rear slide going into Clark, and this was enough to give Kirkham a chance on the inside, so that the 27-year-old just triumphed at the line.

Kirkham and Seeley had each been going for a second ever British Superbike race win, with the former triumphant. Both of their previous victories had also come in wet conditions. Rutter related how he’d had some problems with his Kawasaki misfiring, before it cleared itself, but it wasn’t enough to stop him getting onto the BSB podium for a 107th occasion. Lowry was a solid fourth, and Mason got the better of Bridewell for fifth, and then it was Byrne, who’d dropped a couple of places, Westmoreland and Foray.

Brookes passed Walker to secure tenth, with ‘the Stalker’ also losing out to the second of the overseas rookie, Alessandro Polita on his Jentin Doodson machine. The Italian was the first man home with the new Ducati 1199 Panigale, and he headed Walker, Haga, Scott Smart (Moto Rapido Ducati), James Hillier (Pr1mo Bournemouth Kawasaki), Hickman, Alex Lowes (Team WFR Honda), John Laverty, Barry Burrell (Buildbase BMW), Tom Tunstall (Jentin Doodson Ducati) and Aaron Zanotti (A-Plant Suzuki). Also among the twelve non-finishers was Saudi rider Abdulaziz Binladin (Moto Rapido).

Race two would have seen the top five finishers starting at the front, joined by Brookes, with Seeley on pole due to his fastest race lap. However, events did not go to plan. One of the Supersport competitors crashed in their support race, and petrol was spilt onto the track. The organisers’ efforts with detergent on the already wet track were not enough to get the track clean and safe enough. After the delay a few of the most experienced Superbike riders tested conditions in a short extra practice session, and there was a unanimous decision that the track was unrideable. The race was cancelled and will be rearranged for one of the upcoming rounds.

In the end, the first round at Brands was not necessarily a reliable guide as to the pace setters for the season ahead, but it did show the riders best suited to tricky circuit conditions. In winning, Jon Kirkham achieved only his fourth ever BSB podium result, after over 130 races, and it marked a first-race win for new team Samsung Honda. For some of the more familiar front runners there were mixed fortunes to say the least, with Byrne and Brookes outside the top six, and with Hill, Easton and Michael Laverty out of the race. Can some of the above get back on target next time out at Thruxton?

Standings after one race: Kirkham 25; Seeley 20; Rutter 16; Lowry 13; Mason 11; Bridewell 10; Byrne 9; Westmoreland 8; Foray 7; Brookes 6.
podium credits: Kirkham 3, Seeley 2, Rutter 1.