Christian Iddon claimed a pair of podium places in the British Superbike Championship in Brands Hatch, Luke Mossey winning both races in Kent.
Iddon, from Stockport, had claimed seventh on the grid for the opening race on his Tyco BMW around the 1.2-mile Indy Circuit, with just one second covering the top 19 bikes on the grid, the Stockport racer just four-tenths of a second off pole position.
A great start in race one saw Iddon climb two places, to fifth on the opening lap, then passing John Hopkins, on his Ducati, two laps later.
Race leader James Ellison [Kawasaki] slid out of contention on lap 12, promoting everyone one place, then after a few laps lining up his move, Iddon passed Leon Haslam [Kawasaki] for second place on lap 20.
The pair ran line astern for several laps, and with the hard charging Shane Byrne [Ducati] closing in during the final stages, both Iddon and Haslam had to watch their backs.
Two laps from the end and Haslam made his move, dropping Iddon back to third.
But the former Super Moto Champion had done enough to secure his second podium of the season crossing the line ahead of Byrne in third place, Luke Mossey [Kawasaki] taking his first BSB win.
Starting race two from fourth on the grid, Iddon was immediately promoted to third, when Ellison pitted without taking the start, holding his nerve for the first eight laps, Iddon took his chance to pass Haslam for second, and didn’t look back, completing the thirty lap encounter on the second step of the rostrum a second up the road from the Kawasaki man, and just behind race winner, Mossey.
It was Iddon’s third visit to the podium in four races but he admitted he’d hoped for more: “I saw Luke start to have a few bigger slides.
“I could see the bike starting to get more out of shape and I thought we’ve got a good shot at this.
“Two podiums on the day is great, as it’s not one of my preferred tracks- the team’s done a great job all weekend.
“It’s nice when you can work on little changes, in the past we’ve been changing massive things, this weekend it’s been small changes”, added Iddon.
Iddon currently sits third in the BSB Championship standings as the series heads to Oulton Park in Cheshire for rounds five and six from April 29 t May 1.
Iddon added: “Oulton’s quite a nice track, I like it, it’s fast flowing, all good fun, it’ll be quite a good one for me and the BMW, and hopefully I’ll get a lot of home support, like Luke has this weekend.”
