BSB: Alastair Seeley clinches Supersport double at Assen

There was little to choose between the pair in either race, but 38-year-old Seeley had the upper hand as he defeated the Dubliner to seal a double for the EHA Racing team.

Seeley won Saturday’s Sprint race by only 0.052 seconds and was an equally narrow winner in the Feature race on Sunday, crossing the line to win by 0.097 seconds.

The former champion was handed the chance to ride for Edward and Gail Allingham’s outfit after the Tsingtao MV Agusta team withdrew from the series.

Seeley, who won both Supersport races on the EHA Racing Yamaha at the North West 200 in May, said: “I haven’t been to Assen for a while, but coming off the success of the last two rounds on the EHA Racing Yamaha, I did my homework before I came, studying laps and on-boards and looking at the time sheets from previous years.

“I knew today in the feature race it was all about looking after tyre life and not push too hard early on. But as expected the front tyre was crying enough in the closing laps and I actually folded it a few times.

“Jack was better than me through the first sector but I felt we were better in the second and third sectors, which I suppose is the business end of the lap.

“I nailed the last few corners perfectly. We positioned ourselves in the right place at the right time and it’s great to grab a double for the team.”

Seeley has now won five times on the YZF-R6 since he made his British Supersport debut for the team at Silverstone.

His team-mate, David Allingham, finished seventh and fourth in the two races.

Meanwhile, Glenn Irwin remains in fourth place in the Bennetts British Superbike Championship after the penultimate round at Assen.

The PBM Be Wiser Ducati rider finished fifth in race one yesterday and improved one place into fourth in the second encounter.

Championship leader Leon Haslam put one hand on the BSB title as he won both races on the JG Speedfit Kawasaki.

Irwin, who will join the JG Speedfit Kawasaki team in 2019, said: “Race one was quite difficult, so it was nice to end the race weekend on a positive note. We decided to use the harder tyre for race two which we’ve always struggled to make work on the Be Wiser Ducati and have used very little.

“I didn’t make a great start and was around eighth place when Dan Linfoot crashed in front of me, which left me with nowhere to go. I thought the race was going to be red flagged so sat up and raised my hand, but it never happened, and I dropped way back down the order

“I was more consistent in race two and we made a good step forward with the bike and also my confidence. We’ll head to the final round now and look to end the season on a high. Best wishes to Dan for a speedy recovery too.”

His younger brother, Andrew, finished 16th in the opener but clinched a top-six result in race two, while Tyco BMW’s Michael Laverty was 11th in the first race but crashed out of race two.

In the British Talent Cup class, Scott Swann finished eighth and 11th.