TOMMY Bridewell felt that luck ran against him as he suffered a disappointing weekend at the opening races of this year’s British Superbike Championship Showdown at Assen.

As Tyco BMW teammate Michael Laverty took his debut podium of the season in the Netherlands, Etchilhampton's Bridewell finished down in eighth spot in race one, before crashing out while in the leading group fighting for podium positions in the second outing.

Bridewell, who now lies fifth overall in the championship, said: “It’s just been one of those weekends that I’d like to forget.

"In race one we dug out a result but in that second race I was just unlucky to get caught out as I was in the main pack fighting for a result.

"That’s what can happen in racing in those tricky conditions and the boys in the garage are as disappointed as I am.

"We still have five races left to show what we are capable of and as I said on the run up to Assen, anything less than podiums are not good enough at this stage of the year.”

Team manager Philip Neill added: “For us as a team the weather was simply the winner in that second race, which is really disappointing as I firmly believe we could have enjoyed a double podium.

"Tommy had a tough weekend, there’s no point trying to gloss over that.

"Silverstone is up next, which will give Tommy an opportunity to get his Showdown challenge back on track.”

The penultimate round of the Championship will take place at Silverstone on October 2-4.