TOMMY Bridewell signed off the opening round of the British Superbike Championship sitting third in the standings after some strong performances at Silverstone, writes TIM CRISP.

The Easter weekend meeting did not start well for Bridewell on his all new Oxford Racing Ducati V4R bike, though, as the Etchilhampton racer was taken out by another rider during free practice on Friday.

That left his team with an overnight rebuild to get his bike prepared, but there was no sign of any after-effects on Saturday as Bridewell qualified seventh on the grid for the two Sunday races.

Bridwell did not make the best of starts in race one, dropping to 11th place early on.

However, midway through the 30-lap race, he was involved in an exciting duel with Andrew Irwin's Honda, which went on until the end of the race where Bridewell eventually finished fifth.

The second race represented Bridwell’s 250th start in BSB, and saw him make good progress throughout to climb to fourth place by the time the chequered flag fell.

Bridewell will head to round two of the championship at Oulton Park from May 4-6 sitting third in the standings on 23 points, 22 off the lead.