BSB: Bridewell 'baffled' by Halsall sacking

Tommy Bridewell has said he is ‘baffled’ after being dropped by the Movuno.com Halsall Racing Suzuki team in the middle of this weekend’s Bennetts British Superbike round at Snetterton.

The team released a statement half an hour before qualifying was set to get underway revealing they had terminated the Devizes rider’s contract with immediate effect after ‘several weeks of discussions and a few recent disagreements’.

However, speaking at the back of the Halsall Racing garage, Bridewell was perplexed by the situation and insisted the sacking wasn’t based on results.

“I literally received a phone call five minutes ago from Colin Wright saying they aren’t pursuing this project with me on the Superbike and they are terminating my contract with immediate effect,” Bridewell told MCN.

“He went on to say that the reasons are because Fred Clarke said on commentary that the reason the team didn’t do the test was because the team didn’t have the budget. Unfortunately, Martin and Colin have perhaps assumed I said that to Fred but I did not.

“The team have been working really hard, my Italians, Mark and Chris from K-Tech have been working brilliantly. This is new to them too, they’ve literally just read it over the internet. They thought it was a joke, and I’m fairly speechless as well.”

Bridewell achieved a best result of eighth at both Brands Hatch and Oulton with the Halsall team this year.

“We have had limited track time and have got limited resources as the project came together very late, so the long goal was always to build the project through the course of the year. We weren’t aiming to win races in the first three rounds, the project was always to build but unfortunately something has happened and I am the one in the firing line.

“The bottom line of everything is as long as you believe in your own ability, which I do, and as long as you put in the effort, which I do, things will work out. I’m a great believer that behind every dark cloud there’s a silver lining and if something is meant to be it is meant to be and if it’s not it’s not. I’ll keep working as hard as I do and keep focused.

“I’m just baffled that they didn’t ring me and ask if I’d said it, I would never say something like that about the team. It’s very peculiar.”