Hayfield's Christian Iddon secures BSB Showdown spot

Christian Iddon has secured his place as a Title Fighter in the upcoming Showdown.

The Hayfield rider took fifth place in Sunday’s closing race to claim his place as a Title Fighter, one of four confirmed for the Showdown with six places still up for grabs.

That came after Iddon had suffered his fifth crash in nine races on Saturday and then finished 11th in Sunday’s opening race having been 16th on the grid.

The final race of the weekend saw Brookes start from fifth and Iddon 11th, but the race was stopped on the ninth lap following a crash.

Re-started over just five laps, it was a hectic race, but it was Iddon who came out with a strong fifth place for the VisionTrack Ducati team.

Iddon remains in fourth place overall claiming his place in the Showdown, with team-mate Josh Brookes now up to tenth and just 13 points behind eighth place with the final four Showdown positions still to be decided at the next round at Silverstone this weekend.Iddon said: “I was a bit disappointed with 11th in the first race but, at the same time, I needed a finish after the run we’ve been on.

"I felt pretty racy up until about mid-race and I lost a bit of front end feel in the latter stages whilst the harder tyre didn’t quite work as I’d hoped.

"I switched to the softer tyre for the second race and refined both the electronics and chassis and that enabled me to be more aggressive in the first few laps.

"After the red flag, it was a five-lap dash which is always a bit hairy but the little changes we’d made helped the bike be better again and although a podium may have been possible, it wasn’t to be, and we took the fifth.

"It’s obviously not where I want to be finishing or need to be, but we’ll take what we can, and it’s stopped the rot a little bit, so we’ll build on this.”

Johnny Mowatt, VisionTrack Ducati team co-ordinator said: “We showed a lot of potential in practice and felt that it was going to be one of our stronger meetings.

"but it wasn’t to be, and we don’t seem to be getting the rub of the green at the moment, although the fifth place in the second race will be good for Christian’s confidence.”