Donington Park BSB Test
Images by Dave Yeomans
Kawasaki’s Lee Jackson topped the Bennetts British Superbike Championship official test times at Donington Park this week after taking the top spot in the last two minutes of the final session to edge out McAMS Yamaha’s Jason O’Halloran by just 0.014s.
The Massingberd-Mundy Kawasaki team had a strong start to the day with Danny Buchan holding a top three place in the earlier sessions, although the leading position was initially held by the Honda Racing team with the Irwin brothers earlier in the day. Andrew Irwin headed the pack at lunchtime before Glenn Irwin topped session three.
A frantic end to the day saw Buchan setting the pace with just under ten minutes to go, however it was constantly changing and soon Hector Barbera had fired the Rich Energy OMG Racing BMW into second ahead of Andrew Irwin and Jackson.
Glenn Irwin moved back to the top of the times with four minutes to go ahead of Buchan who had edged back into second place with Josh Brookes then moving into third for the VisionTrack PBM Ducati team.
Jason O’Halloran then hit the top after his final run with two minutes on the clock remaining despite an earlier crash in session three, but the McAMS Yamaha rider was nudged into second as Jackson saved his best laps until last.
Barbera held third position at the end of the final session ahead of Glenn who led the Irwin charge ahead of brother Andrew with Buchan just 0.001s adrift to end the day sixth fastest.
Andrew Irwin
“Today was a positive day, we probably didn’t expect to be as close to the front as we were, which is a nice feeling. The Fireblade is completely new and we don’t have a lot of different parts on it from the road bike, so that’s a positive of how good the bike is out of the crate. I am looking forward to coming back to Donington in just over a weeks’ time and get racing. My consistency is good, I have good race pace and I’m feeling strong ahead of the first race.”
Josh Brookes was seventh after the chequered flag.
Ryan Vickers bounced back from a crash in the opening session on the RAF Regular and Reserve Kawasaki to post the ninth fastest time with Joe Francis and Bradley Ray completing the top ten ahead of the opening round of the season on August 7/8/9 which will be held at Donington Park National Circuit and will be the first of six tripler-header rounds rescheduled because of the Coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic.
The series will be open to spectators but under strict COVID-19 distancing regulations.
Donington Park will be the first of two visits to the Leicestershire circuit although Round 5, the penultimate round, will be held on the longer Grand Prix layout.
Josh Brookes – P7
“The bike was good at the end of last year and I was very pleased with pre-season testing in Spain and the changes to the bike all felt good. The Croft and Knockhill tests proved to be very beneficial also. We started putting things together at Donington Park today, but we got on the wrong path and the bike wasn’t suited to the track and we ended up with something like what he had in Spain. But we plugged away and it was a positive finish at the end. The benefit of test days is you get to test stuff and we did get through a few settings. It’s all positive and we were only a tenth of a second in it on the timesheets in the end. It’s looking good for the race and the bike I finished the day on was great.”
Round 2 takes place in Norfolk at Snetterton then it’s Silverstone’s National Circuit two weeks later before Oulton Park, then the final two rounds at Donington and Brands Hatch respectively.
Missing circuits from this season’s series include Assen, Cadwell Park, Thruxton and Knockhill.
2020 Revised British Superbike Calendar
1: August 7 – 9 Donington Park (National)
2: August 21 – 23 Snetterton
3: September 4 – 6 Silverstone (National)
4: September 18 – 20 Oulton Park
5: October 2 – 4 Donington Park (GP)
6: October 16 – 18 Brands Hatch (GP)
Bennetts British Superbike Championship
Donington Park Official Test
- Lee Jackson (Massingberd-Mundy Kawasaki) 1m:06.583s
- Jason O’Halloran (McAMS Yamaha) +0.014s
- Hector Barbera (Rich Energy OMG Racing BMW) +0.017s
- Glenn Irwin (Honda Racing) +0.054s
- Andrew Irwin (Honda Racing) +0.080s
- Danny Buchan (Massingberd-Mundy Kawasaki) +0.081s
- Josh Brookes (VisionTrack PBM Ducati) +0.136s
- Ryan Vickers (RAF Regular and Reserve Kawasaki) +0.253s
- Joe Francis (Lloyds & Jones Bowker Motorrad BMW) +0.266s
- Bradley Ray (Synetiq BMW Motorrad) +0.288s
- Peter Hickman +0.398s
- Luke Mossey +0.410s
- Tarran Mackenzie +0.421s
- Tommy Bridewell +0.477s
- Kyle Ryde +0.556
- Alex Olsen +0.615s
- Jack Kennedy +0.786s
- Christian Iddon +0.787s
- Keith Farmer +1.079s
- Dan Linfoot +1.573s
- Storm Stacey +1.593s
- Gino Rea +1.705s
- Josh Owens +1.820
- Graeme Irwin +2.433s
- Taylor Mackenzie +2.883s
- Bjorn Estment +2.914s
- Brian McCormack +4.327s
British Superstock 100
A huge 37-rider Superstock 1000 field also saw tight competition with only a second separating pace-setter Chrissy Rouse (BMW) and Australia’s Brayden Elliott (Suzuki) in 16th place.
Danny Kent made it a BMW 1-2 at the end of proceedings ahead of Tom Neave (Honda) and Lewis Rollo (Aprilia) while Kiwi Damon Rees (BMW) made an encouraging start to his BSB campaign by finishing in P7 just ahead of South Australian Billy McConnell (BMW).
TT legend Michael Dunlop also took part in the Superstock 1000 test onboard a Buildbase Suzuki and finished in P32, 2.581s off the benchmark set by Rouse.
Superstock 1000 Test Times
- Chrissy Rouse 1m08.236s
- Danny Kent +0.068s
- Tom Neave +0.073s
- Lewis Rollo +0.144s
- Matt Truelove +0.210s
- David Allingham +0.296s
- Damon Rees +0.302s
- Billy McConnell +0.350s
- Fraser Rogers +0.381s
- Joe Collier +0.479s
British Supersport
The combined British Supersport and GP2 sessions were busy with 47 riders taking to the 3.18 kilometre Donington Park National Circuit. Rory Skinner topped proceedings by half-a-second ahead of fellow Yamaha rider Bradley Perrie, James Westmoreland (Kawasaki), Brad Jones (Yamaha) and Victorian Ben Currie (Kawasaki) in P5.
South Australia’s Levi Day (Yamaha) ranked P15 at the end of proceedings. 2.133 seconds behind Skinner’s becnhmark.
