Honda’s Tommy Bridewell to wildcard in Italy.

The 36 year old British rider from Wiltshire currently leads the 2024 BSB standings with three rounds remaining and will be hoping to replicate this form at Round 9 of the WSBK season. Bridewell is no stranger to Cremona, having tested a Honda Superbike alongside the WSBK team at the circuit in May this year.

Bridewell will be competing for Honda UK, the team he currently rides for in BSB and has already taken 13 podiums including two race wins this year.

Honda racing UK team manager, Havier Beltron spoke of his excitement of the upcoming event:
” We are delighted to take this opportunity and participate at the World Superbike race at Cremona next weekend. The prospect of continuing to work closely with our HRC colleagues in the WSBK paddock was a chance not to be missed.’’

The 2023 BSB Champion, who was also runner-up in 2021 has previous World Championship experience having competed in nine previous WSBK races. Bridewell made his debut in WSBK sixteen years ago at the final round of the 2008 season at Portimao in Portugal wildcarding for Team NB Suzuki. After retiring in race one, Bridewell claimed an impressive 25th place (out of 31 riders) in race 2 finishing in front of series regulars including Shuhei Aoyama and Luca Scassa.

In 2010 Bridewell also competed in a single WSBK event, this time wild carding for Tyco Honda at his home round at Silverstone, improving on his previous best result by finishing in 20th in race 1 and 18th in race 2. The 2019 season is Bridewell’s most successful and recent WSBK experience to date, replacing the injured Eugene Laverty at Go Eleven Racing aboard Ducati machinery for rounds five and six of the season at Imola and Jerez. Bridewell achieved his first World Championship points by finishing 12th in race 1 at Imola before adding to his tally with 14th place in race 1 at Jerez.

In Bridewell’s most recent WSBK race start, prior to next weekend, he claimed his best race result of 10th place in race 2 at Jerez. In 2018 the brit also competed on the world stage making his debut in the FIM World Endurance Championship competing at the Suzuka 8-hour race, finishing in a strong 4th place.

Looking ahead to next weekend and the remainder of this season Bridewell exclaimed:
‘’ I’m here to race; it’s what I love doing so I’m really looking forward to it to be honest. We had hoped to join the WSBK race at Donington but unfortunately the stars didn’t quite align for this to happen. I really enjoyed the Cremona wildcard evaluation a few months ago so it’ll be great to have the opportunity to put into practice some of the things we learnt from this and keep on building the momentum ahead of the final few races of the BSB season.’’

Featured Image: Olithephoto.