Stockport’s Christian Iddon bounced back in style at the weekend, when the TYCO BMW rider claimed a podium spot at Brands Hatch, following his four race lay-off through injury sustained during Free Practice at Knockhill.
Iddon claimed a modest eleventh place on the British Superbike Championship grid, around Brands Hatch’s famous 2.4mile ‘Grand Prix’ layout, in wet conditions Iddon fell foul of a drying track and narrowly missed out on Q3. But Race-day dried out and as Race One got underway, the former World Superbike rider got straight to work.
Christian ran as high as fourth in the Safety Car affected encounter, but with competition fierce he was bundled back to tenth with just laps to spare and rainclouds looming. The Race was ultimately red-flagged as concern grew over the rain falling on track, but Iddon had done enough to grab two places back on the last lap, claiming eight at the flag, and claiming eighth on the grid for Race Two.
“I was pretty disappointed to be honest, I think I had the pace for fourth, and a possible podium” explained Christian, “I just got duffed up a bit, and it took me too long to get back in to my rhythm. I hate it when I don’t race very well, I think I was a bit rusty”.
The threatening rain clouds never materialised for Race Two, and yet again, Iddon got stuck right in from the off, claiming four places on the first lap. On lap nine, Josh Brookes [Yamaha] took a tumble up ahead, promoting Christian to third. For the next eleven laps the former Supermoto Champion stretched out the gap behind to Peter Hickman [BMW] and Leon Haslam [Kawasaki] leaving himself comfortably on the podium, just three-tenths of a second off second placed James Ellison [Yamaha].
“To finish the weekend off on the podium is awesome, big thank you to the whole team and all my sponsors and everyone who’s stuck by me while I’ve been a bit moody while I was injured. To come back from two rounds off, it’s really good to come back with an eighth and a third.
Iddon continued; “We’ve shown to everyone that we haven’t lost any speed, we’ve come back strong, they’re going to have to make sure they keep an eye out for us ’cause we’re still here. You get forgotten about pretty quick when you’re not in the paddock, so it’s real nice to come back with a podium. It’s nice to reward the Team with a trophy”.
Christian now travels to Suzuka, in Japan, to compete in an eight-hour endurance Race, before the British Superbike Championship gets back underway at Thruxton, in Hampshire, on the 6th August.