Norfolk riders performed well as the second round of the 2018 British Superbike Championships on the Indy circuit at Brands Hatch experienced a real mixed bag of weather, and results.
The Superstock 600 race stood out because, while it was expected that Thetford's Ryan Vickers was going to be the man to beat on his 600 Yamaha, not many expected Norwich rider Grant Newstead to be the one to chase him home in second place.
Vickers and Newstead led into Paddock when the lights changed and while Vickers built up a six-second lead, Newstead came under attack from Adam McLean and had a fight to the line where he beat him by 0.044 of a second to take his first BSB podium.
Jake Dixon, of the RAF Regular and Reserves, had a mixed weekend. He qualified seventh and in his first race took sixth place in a race dominated by the battle between Bradley Ray and Shane Bryne, who took the win. Race two was in two parts, due to rain – part one was stopped on lap 13 when Dixon was in third place and looking good, in the second part, Dixon was once again in third when he crashed out at Graham Hill Bend on lap 17.
In the Superstock 1000 race, Bowthorpe's Morello Racing's riders Josh Elliott and Sam Clarke finished seventh and eighth respectively in race one, but Elliott was excluded when the mapping on his ECU was deemed illegal. Kawasaki UK made it clear that they provided the software in good faith and Morello Racing were totally exonerated, but Elliott was not reinstated.
In race two, Clarke took another seventh and Elliott finished eighth, while Jordan Weaving on the RAF team's machine failed to finish.
The draperRacing sidecar pairing of Simon Gilbert and North Walsham's Jack Tritton had a frustrating weekend, including being taken out in race two. That was finally turned around in the restart when they came from the back of the grid to take fifth overall and second in their class as they got to grip with the greasy track.
Michael Russell had racing licence issues and will have to wait until Oulton Park for his sidecar debut, but he did have two finishes on the True Heroes Ducati.
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