Bridewell won't finish in the top ten": the redemption of the SBK rider wearing number 46

Positive balance for the Superbike Advocates team, new to the category: the almost 38-year-old Bridewell has made a few skeptics rethink.

A new team joined the grid of the production-derived world championship in 2026: we’re referring, of course, to Superbike Advocates Racing. The Australian team, already active at home in ASBK, had initially announced its presence in BSB with the aim of also doing some WorldSBK wild cards. Once the conditions arose for an immediate arrival in the World Championship, participation in the British Superbike Championship was canceled.

Thomas Bridewell remained the designated rider to pilot the team owner Lee Khouri’s Ducati Panigale V4 R. The 1988-born Briton was a BSB veteran, where he also became champion in 2023 on a Ducati with the PBM team, but he had also appeared as a replacement and wild card in WorldSBK in 2019, 2024, and 2025.

Bridewell has scored 59 points in the first 8 rounds of the 2026 calendar and sits fifteenth in the overall standings. It’s worth remembering that the Superbike Advocates team debuted at Portimão, skipping the opening round at Phillip Island (Australia).

The British rider’s best results are fifth places achieved in Race 1 at Aragón and in Race 1 at Donington Park. In their first year as full-time entrants in WorldSBK, it’s not bad at all for him and his team to have grabbed two top fives. After the first “shakedown” rounds, there’s been growth. Certainly, having the best bike on the grid helps; with the new Ducati Panigale V4 R all the riders are managing to achieve excellent results.

Owner Lee Khouri expressed his satisfaction with his team’s debut season in WorldSBK: “We’ve received positive feedback from the WorldSBK paddock,” reports Ducati.com’s official website, “and some Dorna officials also came to congratulate us on the results achieved so far. They said it’s extraordinary for a first-year team, halfway through our first season and after skipping the first race, to achieve these results.”

Khouri admitted there was quite a bit of skepticism toward Superbike Advocates and Bridewell: “At the start everyone said: ‘You won’t make it, Tommy Bridewell won’t finish in the top ten.’ But the Superbike Advocates Racing team has achieved P5, P6, P7 and P9. We’re effectively in the top ten, which is really exciting.”

There’s a great atmosphere in the team’s garage, and Khouri also highlights the human qualities of the 2023 BSB champion: “Bridewell is a truly unique character, and that’s a positive thing. He’s talented on the bike, no doubt, but he also has personality and character. He greets the fans, engages with them. He doesn’t have an entourage. Some other riders have five people around them; it’s impossible to get close. I really like the way Tommy carries himself, just like we do. He works hard, he’s humble, he looks ahead, and he delivers concrete results.”

The number 46 is on the front fairing of the British rider’s Ducati, a number all motorcycle racing fans associate with Valentino Rossi. In this case, the nine-time world champion has absolutely nothing to do with it.

Bridewell uses the number 46 to honor his brother Ollie, himself a rider who tragically died following a motorcycle accident during training at Mallory in 2007. The two were very close, and for Tommy (registered as Thomas) racing is a true mission; he wants to give his all for Ollie as well, until the day he decides to retire.

He will turn 38 on August 6, but he doesn’t seem inclined to stop. We’ll see whether he and the Superbike Advocates team renew the contract for 2027.

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