By Sandy Burr

Scott Redding had a debut season to remember as he clinched the 2019 British Superbike Championship at Brands Hatch.

Be Wiser Ducati team-mate Josh Brookes won all three races at the weekened but was unable to overturn Redding's 28-point advantage.

Mechanical problems left Redding ninth on the grid for race one following a disastrous qualifying session when a mechanical problem left him ninth on the grid.

Brookes took pole position with Danny Buchan and Christian Iddon completing the front row while Tommy Bridewell, needing to win to stay in title contention, headed up the second row.

Brookes took full advantage from his pole start while Redding struggled off the line and dropped back to 11th but a big off from Luke Mossey on lap two shook the pack and Redding fought his way up to seventh.

On lap seven, James Ellison’s engine failure at Surtees caused a red flag as he took out Joe Francis and Ryan Vickers with him. With the new restart rules being based on the result of the last completed lap, Brookes kept pole leaving the advantage in favour of Bridewell, who took second on the grid in front of Iddon.

A trouble-free 12 laps saw Brookes finish first and Bridewell take second with Redding in third.

On Sunday, pole position again gave Brookes a perfect start in race two for Josh Brookes. Bridewell was the filling in a PBM Ducati sandwich for the majority of the race.

Lap 18 saw Redding cleanly pass Bridewell to move second but Brookes held off his team-mate to close the gap for the final race of the season to 14 points.

Redding needed to finish in the top five in race three to take the championship. He started second on the grid but dropped back to fifth with Brookes again heading up the pack.

It took only seven laps for Redding to snatch third from Iddon and while Redding slowed in the remaining laps behind race winner Brookes, he crossed the line third, 12.3 seconds behind race winner Brookes, to seal first and second places for Be Wiser Ducati team in the championship.

Redding is the first rider to win the title in his debut year, and will now move onto the Superbike World Championship with Aruba.it Racing in 2020.

Lydd's Bradley Ray, despite a disappointing season, was looking to win the Riders Cup. But those hopes were soon dashed when he picked up just one point by finishing 15th in race one. He followed it up with two 14th place finishes in the final two races. Sittingbourne's Alex Olsen finished 13th in all three races.

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