Thomas Strudwick got his championship challenge underway in today’s second ABK Beer 0% BMW Motorrad F 900 R Cup as he beat polesitter Nikki Coates by more than a second.

Coates wasn’t the fastest off the line and it was Kieran Smith who got the holeshot ahead of Strudwick. But the 2023 runner-up wasn’t keen to hang around and was quickly through into the lead.

From there he controlled the rest of the race and while Coates was able to claw back the few places he had dropped at the start, he wasn’t able to catch Strudwick and had to settle for second.

Smith ended up third, with Barry Burrell taking fourth as Michael Rutter brought his Batham’s Racing machine home fifth.

ABK Beer 0% BMW Motorrad F 900 R Cup, Heat Two result:

1.    Thomas Strudwick (Case Moto BMW) 
2.    Nikki Coates (Team Art of Racing/Ernie Coates Trackdays) +1.296s
3.    Kieran Smith (Bowker Motorrad/Bathams Racing) +2.766s
4.    Barry Burrell (Halliwell Jones Motorrad) _3.507s
5.    Michael Rutter (Bathams Racing) +4.298s