In the first race of the final British Superbike Showdown weekend at Brands Hatch, Scott Redding tried to avoid upsetting the tile battle to a victory that felt both thrilling and deliberate. The victory at Brands Hatch was his second on the track and his sixth of the shortened season.
The Hager PBM Ducati rider started the 20-lap race from sixth place after trying a one-tire strategy, but it didn’t help much.
Leon Haslam enjoyed an early charge, dropping him to seventh, but Reading recovered and moved up to fifth by lap six.
After a nervous start, #4 had passed Christian Idon by lap eight, but struggled against fellow Ducati rider Rory Skinner.
In a similar machine, Redding moved up on the inside of the Cheshire Moldings riders on lap 12.
Redding sat behind the leaders as the title fight unfolded at the front of the race, with Bradley Ray ahead of Kyle Ryde at the time. Redding had made a strong statement before the final race that he didn’t want to be involved in the title decision, but would challenge for a win, and true to his word, ‘The Comeback Kid’ wasted no time in first attracting Ride safely and then doing the same for Ray.
While the title duo worried about each other, Redding was able to escape and was not caught despite Ray’s late charge, crossing the checkered flag with a lead of 0.151 seconds.
Ray started from pole position with a slight advantage on laps below the old lap record, but it didn’t last until the first corner with Ride on his Raceways Yamaha bike and they began exchanging lead positions early on.
As Redding began to look for the win, Rea quickly moved back to the front and pushed hard for the win on the final lap, allowing the #28 to set a race-best lap on the final lap and take pole again in the sprint, achieving his goal of finishing ahead of Ryde and taking back valuable points.
Ryde had tire grip issues for four laps, but maintained a gap with fourth place, allowing him to comfortably drop back and guarantee third place in the Nitros Competition Yamaha.
Skinner was unable to keep up with the pace of the leaders and finished in fourth place, far behind the group.
Danny Kent took over fifth place after Christian Idon, who had started on the front row, crashed out at Druid on lap 15, but was originally a feature of the leading group and the Makamus rider showed no signs of losing the position as there were gaps up front and behind him.
Seeing the next rider cross the finish line was another story. Max Cooke took the lead for Kawasaki and Iddon withdrew from the race, but the AJN Steelstock rider was pushed all the way by Leon Haslam and had to settle for seventh place, ending the Moto Rapido Ducati rider’s slim mathematical hopes on the tiles.
Charlie Nesbitt had problems qualifying and finished last in Q2. Starting from 15th on the grid, the Master Mac rider was able to weave his way through the pack and move up to 8th place by the end of the race.
For DAO Racing, Lee Jackson also moved forward with a ninth place, while Glenn Irwin completed the top 10 in the second seat of the Nitros Competitions.
| 2025 British Superbike Round 11 – Brands Hatch Race Results (1) | ||||
| position | rider | nut | team | time |
| 1 | scott redding | GBR | Hager PBM (Ducati) | 28 minutes 29.165 seconds |
| 2 | bradley ray | GBR | Raceways Yamaha (Yamaha) | +0.151 seconds |
| 3 | Kyle Ride | GBR | Nitrous Competitions Racing (Yamaha) | +1.284 seconds |
| 4 | Rory Skinner | GBR | Cheshire Molding Ducati | +3.235 seconds |
| 5 | Danny Kent | GBR | Makam Racing (Yamaha) | +4.068 seconds |
| 6 | max cook | GBR | AJN Steelstock Kawasaki (Kawasaki) | +7.254 seconds |
| 7 | Leon Haslam | GBR | Moto Rapido Ducati Racing | +7.608 seconds |
| 8 | charlie nesbitt | GBR | Master Mac Honda (Honda) | +11.584 seconds |
| 9 | lee jackson | GBR | DAO Racing (Honda) | +11.622 seconds |
| 10 | Glenn Irwin | GBR | Nitrous Competitions Racing (Yamaha) | +22.040 seconds |
| 11 | storm stacey | GBR | Batams AJN Racing BMW (BMW) | +23.552 seconds |
| 12 | josh brooks | out of | DAO Racing (Honda) | +23.569 seconds |
| 13 | fraser rogers | GBR | TAG Honda (Honda) | +30.506 seconds |
| 14 | fraser rogers | GBR | TAG Honda (Honda) | +30.417 seconds |
| 15 | dean harrison | GBR | Honda Racing UK (Honda) | +30.867 seconds |
| 16 | scott swan | GBR | Send My Bag Racing by IWR Honda | +32.462 seconds |
| 17 | John McPhee | GBR | Master Mac Honda (Honda) | +32.604 seconds |
| 18 | billy mcconnell | out of | C&L Fairburn Properties/Look Forward Racing (Honda) | +41.223 seconds |
| 19 | davie todd | GBR | LEW 8Ten Racing BMW Motorrad (BMW) | +1 minute 00.843 seconds |
| 20 | Luke Hedger | GBR | White Cliff CDH Racing (Honda) | DNF |
| twenty one | Christian Idon | GBR | AJN Steelstock Kawasaki (Kawasaki) | DNF |
| twenty two | jamie van sickelas | NLD | TAG Honda (Honda) | DNF |
| twenty three | richard carr | IRL | Rokit BMW Motorcycle (BMW) | DNF |
| twenty four | tommy bridewell | GBR | Honda Racing UK (Honda) | DNF |
| twenty five | jamie davis | GBR | White Cliff CDH Racing (Honda) | DNF |
| 26 | Blaze Baker | RSA | NP Racing Honda (Honda) | DNS |
Storm Stacey continued to work on Batams’ bike despite his BMW not being a good fit at Brands Hatch from the start, rising from 14th to 11th on the grid after briefly dropping out of the top 15 in a fierce battle for the final points.
Josh Brooks managed to work his way back to the starting spot in 12th place on DAO Racing’s second bike.
LEW 8Ten Racing’s Peter Hickman also returned to 14th place, with Dean Harrison taking the final points in place of Honda’s Andrew Irwin.
Official hatch record for the British superbike brand:
BSB Best Lap – Shane Byrne (2017, Ducati) 1 minute 24.406 seconds
Official Lap Record – Tommy Bridewell (2024, Honda) 1 minute 24.709 seconds
New Lap Record – Bradley Ray (2025, Yamaha, Q2 – 1 minute 24.278 seconds)
Brand born in 2025:
Round 5:
Qualifying: 1 lay (2 rides, 3 readings)
Race 1: 1 lay (2 reading, 3 ride)
Race 2: 1 Reading (2 Ride, 3 Kent)
Race 3: 1 ride (2 Kent, 3 Reading)
Oulton Park in 2024:
Brands Hatch 2024:
Round 6:
Qualifying: 1 Vickers (2 Kent, 3 G Irwin)
Race 1: 1 Vickers (2 Bridewell, 3 A Irwin)
Race 2: 1 Vickers (2 Bridewell, 3 Ride)
Race 3: 1 Vickers (2 Idon, 3 Ride)
Round 11 (Showdown):
Qualifying: 1 Vickers (2 Jackson, 3 Brooks)
Race 1: 1 Kent (2 Vickers, 3 Bridewell)
Race 2: 1 Bridewell (2 rides, 3 Vickers)
Race 3: 1 ride (2 Bridewell, 3 Vickers)
Billy McConnell was unable to qualify and finished last, but fought his way to 18th place in the race.
Idon was not the only one to fall, Tommy Bridewell was the first to fall, shaking his head at Surtees on lap seven.
There were also a few retirements, with Jamie Davies, Richard Kerr, Jamie van Sickeras and Luke Hedger all returning to the pits.
Blaise Baker did not start in race one.
championship standings
Third place gave Ryde 27 points, giving him 472 points. 2nd place Ray added 30 points to his total of 445 points, making the difference between the two 27 points, and at the end of race 1, Ray’s points had narrowed to 3 points.
Although Haslam was no longer a candidate, he remains in third place overall with 362.
Reading moved into fifth place with the victory despite not having started their BSB journey until Knockhill. Currently, he has a score of 272.5 points, passing Idon and Bridewell, both of whom have fallen, and both have maintained their points of 272 even after their DNFs.
Rookies John McPhee and Scott Swan fought for a points finish, but slipped out on the final lap. Swan was in the lead on the course, but both had no scores, leaving McPhee in the lead with 53 points and Swan with 47.5 points.