Smiths Racing Team's Glen Richards moved to within 4.5 points of the championship lead following a dramatic weekend of action in the Motorpoint British Supersport Championship at the Dutch circuit of Assen. The Australian could only manage sixth position in Saturday's Sprint race and in doing so conceded more points to rival Jack Kennedy but it was in Sunday's feature race at the historic circuit that Richards bounced back.

Knowing he had to beat Kennedy to maintain his championship challenge, Richards was lying in second place behind the Irishman when Kennedy crashed out meaning he didn't add to his points tally. The resulting battle saw Richards challenging for the victory but eventually had to settle for a safe third position behind American PJ Jacobsen and fellow Triumph rider Christian Iddon.

For team mate Luke Mossey the weekend started well when he qualified on pole position and in the early stages of Saturday's Sprint race led for the early laps but in the end had to settle for fourth position which he followed up with ninth place in Sunday's feature race for the Gloucester-based team.

However Billy McConnell had a weekend to forget when he could only muster ten points in total from the two races. A 12th position in the opening race was marginally bettered with a tenth in race two and with rival Christian Iddon scoring well McConnell now faces a battle if he is to finish third in the title race.

Rebecca Smith, Team Manager:

"It was a really mixed weekend for the team. We had the pace but we were really struggling with preserving the tyres for the duration of the races. We are obviously thrilled that Glen has reduced Jack's lead but as a team we didn't get quite the results we wanted so are really looking forward to moving on to Silverstone."


Results - Race 1
1, Christian Iddon (Triumph)
2, Jack Kennedy (Yamaha)
3, Richard Cooper (Triumph)
4, Luke Mossey (Smiths Racing Triumph)
5, Raymond Schouten (Yamaha)
6, Glen Richards (Smith Racing Triumph)
12, Billy McConnell (Smiths Racing Triumph)


Results - Race 2
1, PJ Jacobsen (Suzuki)
2, Christian Iddon (Triumph)
3, Glen Richards (Smiths Racing Triumph)
4, Raymond Schouten (Yamaha)
5, Richard Cooper (Triumph)
6, Glen Irwin (Yamaha)
9, Luke Mossey (Smiths Racing Triumph)
10, Billy McConnell (Smiths Racing Triumph)


Championship Standings after Round Ten
1, Kennedy 330.5pts
2, Richards 326
3, McConnell 271
4, Iddon 231.5
5, Wilson 203
6, Mossey 172

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