Jack Kennedy back on top with third British Supersport Championship title

Jack Kennedy has wrapped up the 2021 British Supersport Championship title with a round to spare after securing his seventh win of the season at the Brands Hatch finale.

The Irishman came into the final two races of the season as the hot favourite to cement his status as the series’ most successful racer after opening up a 34 point advantage over defending champion Ben Currie.

Needing only a modest result to put the title out of Currie’s reach without requiring a final race showdown, Kennedy doubled down anyway with victory at Brands Hatch assuring himself and the Bournemouth Kawasaki team the title.

This is Kennedy’s third British SSP in four years but his first on Kawasaki machinery, while he becomes only the second rider to tally three British Supersport Championship titles, equalling the feat achieved by the late Karl Harris in 2001, 2003 and 2004.

Only the third time Kawasaki has lifted the British Supersport Championship title since the class was introduced in 1989 - after John Reynolds in 1990 and Tarran Mackenzie in 2016 - the season is poised to end with a 1-2 for the Kawasaki ZX-6R, with Currie needing just three points to seal the runners-up spot on the Gearlink bike.

Though they went onto the final round as the last riders standing in the title fight, Kennedy and Currie went about their campaigns in very different ways with the former winning seven races, while the latter didn’t step foot on the top step of the podium once, instead relying on the consistency of 16 top five finishes from 20 races.

With a race to come, Lee Johnston, Bradley Perie - himself a six-time race winner this season - Harry Truelove and the currently injured Kyle Smith on the trial 765cc Triumph round out the top six positions.