The eighth round of the British Supersport Championship took place at Cadwell Park over the Bank Holiday weekend of August 25 and 26.

A truly unique and iconic race circuit which twists and winds through open park and woodland. It has become established as one of the best circuits in the country and is a firm favourite amongst many of the riders who visit drew in a bumper crowd over the bank Holiday weekend.

Rhys Irwin secured seventh place in his opening race of the weekend for Gearlink Kawasaki which he followed up with a fifth place in the longer feature race on Sunday. His teammate Cameron Dawson had a positive weekend. He finished fourteenth in his opening race and a well-deserved ninth in his final race of the weekend.

The opening free practice session of the weekend for the Gearlink Kawasaki riders took place on Friday morning in monsoon conditions.

Dawson ended the opening session with the ninth-quickest time 1:45.641 seconds, while Irwin finished in second with a time of 1:43.344. The second practice session of the weekend took place in dry conditions, unfortunately with ten minutes of the session remaining it started raining, and both riders were unable to improve their times. Dawson ended the session with the ninth-quickest time, 1:34.900 seconds while Irwin finished in eleventh, 1:35.415 seconds.

It was a challenging fifteen-minute qualifying session for both Gearlink Kawasaki riders on Saturday, Dawson qualified in fourteenth while Irwin qualified in eleventh.

Round eight of the Quattro Group British Supersport was held at Cadwell Park.Round eight of the Quattro Group British Supersport was held at Cadwell Park. (Image: Michael Wincott)

Both riders made good starts in their opening 12-lap race of the weekend. Throughout the race Irwin was involved in a three-way fight for seventh with Shane Richardson and Alastair Seeley. The trio swapped positions multiple times during the race. Irwin crossed the line eventually beating Richardson to seventh by 0.236 seconds. Dawson also enjoyed a hard-fought three-way battle throughout the race and finished fourteenth just, 0.497 seconds behind Carter Broun in thirteenth.

After his opening race of the weekend Dawson commented: "Despite the pace being a little off, I felt confident in today’s race. I think that tomorrow’s feature race will suit me a lot more, so hopefully we can make an improvement on today’s result."

The grid for Sundays feature race was determined by the rider's fastest lap in the sprint race. Irwin started the 16-lap race from tenth while Dawson started from sixteenth. Both riders initially made good starts and held on to their starting position during the opening laps of the race. By midrace, Irwin had progressed from ninth to fifth, while Dawson had moved from twelfth to ninth. Irwin eventually finished fifth just 0.135 seconds ahead of Harry Truelove in sixth.

Dawson was ninth only 0.403 seconds behind Max Wadsworth in eighth.

Reflecting on his weekend, Irwin commented: "It’s been another tough weekend, but I’m glad that I was able to show some signs of progress in our feature race today."

Dawson said: "I'm very pleased to have achieved another top 10 result today. We slowly built throughout the weekend and although it’s been a little tough, with some tricky weather conditions, I’m definitely returning home with a smile on my face."

The ninth round of the Supersport Championship will take place at Oulton Park over the weekend of September 14 and 15, all the teams and riders will be looking to add more points to their championship.