Brookes bosses BSB's Bank Holiday double-header with brace of wins at Oulton Park

ByEurosport

Updated 06/05/2019 at 22:56 GMT

Ducati V4R's Josh Brookes led from pole to win Race One on Bank Holiday Monday at Oulton Park, holding off a strong challenge from Tommy Bridewell. And the Australian followed up with another win in Race Two to finish a dominant weekend in style.

Josh Brookes

Image credit: Getty Images

The start to race one was delayed by ten minutes after Joe Francis, who suffered a big crash in the morning practice session, had technical problem during the warm-up lap and leaked oil on the track.

Brookes started on pole and led Tommy Bridewell into the first corner after a superb start at the front of the grid, while Championship leader Josh Elliott was way back in tenth at the end of the opening lap.

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Jason O'Halloran put in the fast lap of the race on lap three to close the gap to the leading pair, but struggled to ever really threaten either Brookes or Bridewell at the head of the race.

After eight laps, Bridewell had trimmed Brookes’ lead to just 0.278s, but that had opened back up to 0.394s going into the final lap and Brookes held on despite a barnstorming lap from the chaser to take a deserved win having led from ticker to tape.

And speaking after his win, Brookes revealed he didn't realise just how close Bridewell had been to snatching the win at the last, telling Eurosport:

I was pushing hard, but if I knew Tommy was right on my back wheel like he was … I kind of got complacent with the gap, thinking I didn’t want to make any mistakes at my end, and didn’t realise he was actually that close. That’s my mistake for not being more clear about what I wanted on the board, but I won’t make that mistake again and luckily I had enough of a buffer that I still got the win.

Danny Buchan took the final podium spot having pulled away from O'Halloran, opening up close to a four-second gap.

Race Two followed a similar pattern, with Brookes again the man to beat and setting a blistering pace at the front.

Bridewell was again the closest challenger to the Australian, but in contrast to the opening race he was unable to post a serious threat going into the final lap and finished over two seconds back.