British Superbikes, Snetterton: Stacey braves the storm for first BSB win

Storm Stacey picked up his first British Superbike win at Snetterton in a difficult race one at the Norwich track, with the weather playing a massive part in the result.

The LKQ Euro Car Parts Kawasaki rider had worked his way forward, pushing with an intermediate tyre in the race which had been declared wet.

When the Red Flag came out for Rory Skinner’s fall, the race had just passed race distance, bur Stacey was waving like a winner:

“I was so nervous to ruin that last half of the race! When the red flag came out before I was looking at the marshals, I was saying ‘is it finished? Is it finished? Have I won? Have I won?’

• 2024 British Superbikes: Snetterton - Qualifying Results
• 2024 British Superbikes: Snetterton - Race Results (1)

Like Kyle said, to go for the inter rear it was a stiff choice - I didn’t know whether to do it or not and I did and it paid off”.

That gamble saw the #79 on pole for the restart. Initially under pressure from Danny Kent before he fell, Stacey was expecting Tommy Bridewell, on the same tyres to join him at the front next, that wasn’t to be as the #1 was the next to fall, hitting Kent on the way:

“I thought Tommy was going to be right with me and Tommy didn’t come with me and I was probably the only inter rider that was actually risking riding with the inter rear tyre really - and it felt good to me.

“I didn’t feel like, I didn’t really have many moments - I had moments in places where I knew I would but, yeah - chipping away and I thought ‘right, we’re on here, we’re on for a win’ and then when the red flag came out I was like ‘oh, I’ve been robbed, I’ve been robbed of my first’ I thought I’ve done it”.

Being able to turn around his attitude to not getting a red flag win was key to Stacey being able to come back and ride at the front again, this time in a fully wet race with low visibility and spray - there was a further delay to the start as it rained again- showing his capability in a range of conditions:

“The delay, it gives us another two laps as well to scrub the tyres in, which made me feel a lot better. Then, when I saw Danny lose the front, I thought ‘right. I just need to keep this all together here now’.

Lewis come and I thought oh, he’s going to win the Pathway class and I’ll end up winning outright. That’s how I thought it worked, so I thought, well if I come second at least I’m still going to win the outright, but then I thought, I’m catching him here, I thought I can do this”.

Thankfully Stacey decided to go all in on the final lap of the five in the shortened distance, taking the win outright from the front:

“So I stringed it all together, got it all good and then I thought ‘right, well if I’m going to win it, I may as well win it outright’!

I passed him down the straight, coming on the brakes and managed to make it stick all the way to the line and we brought it home in P1”.

Stacey has been with the same team, through several sponsor name changes for his 128 BSB races so was quick to credit his work and relationship with his team in the win:

“We’ve spent so long trying to do this and not even just trying to do this - trying to do top fives, a podium - a podium would have been enough two years ago, a year ago, it’s what we’re fighting for . We had a lot of problems back end of last year and it probably wouldn’t have happened last year even if we had a wet race -it’s unfortunate that we’ve had to have a wet race to do it but we knew that was probably going to be the case”.

The irony of winning at last on his least favourite track to ride on the calendar wasn’t lost on Stacey either:

“And what is good is to get my first superbike win is around the track I least - my least favourite. I’m not a massive fan of Snetterton so to get a win around here is amazing, it’s a bit annoying really”!