British Superbikes, Oulton Park - Iddon: “bike is just another world”

Christian Iddon built on a solid opening round with a long awaited return to the podium after improvements for his Ducati at Oulton Park.

Lisa Lewis

05 May 2024

Christian Iddon, BSB, 2024,Oulton Park, Race 1
© Ian Hopgood Photography

Christian Iddon and his team at Oxford Products Ducati have been working hard on their package between rounds, and are already seeing the benefits with a podium visit in the first race of the second round at Oulton Park.

The opening race at the Cheshire track allowed the #21 bike and rider the kind of success Iddon had been waiting a long time to see return.

The race itself saw Iddon, like Glenn Irwin ahead able to utilise the Ducati power and pull away. Though in the end there was no catching the #2 the result marked a large step in the right direction, also a building block on his fourth overall after solid results in both races in Navarra.

For Iddon, the new changes to his Ducati made all the difference:

“My bike is just another world compared to what it was last year, so I’m able to ride it, we’re able as a team to improve it session by session, because last year we had so many problems, such a big fundamental problem, that everything else we did wasn’t really helping at all.

So I just felt happy, in a way, that I can ride again now, like I’m used to riding because it was a tough year last year - we had really high expectations and fell so short.

On the race itself, Iddon was happy to be able to chase down Irwin and is looking for a way to improve on that and prevent him pulling the pin again for the races on Monday:

“It was a good race… I got duffed up a little bit at the beginning and then picked my way through a little bit and then tried to settle in behind Glenn and - he set an incredible pace really - I tried to keep pushing, every time I sort of upped the pace he responded - every time.

“It was quite interesting where we make up time really, different parts of the track, so hopefully he won’t find out my secrets and I can find out his and we can improve for tomorrow and see if we can take it to him!”

Iddon has two chances to win on Bank Holiday Monday - the last time he did so was the first visit to Brands Hatch in 2021 - with the Sprint race first off before the riders return to track for the longer race three to close the meeting.