British Superbike round up from Sunday at Donington Park

2023 British Superbike Championship
Round Three – Donington Park GP
Superbike Sunday

Images by David Yeomans Photography

Sunday Support Class Report/Results Here (Link)

After what had been a difficult start to the season Jason O’Halloran broke through to claim his first victory of the year at Donington Park on Sunday.

In the third and final race of the round Kyle Ryde rebounded from a race two crash to become the first rider to claim a double victory on a weekend where seven different riders celebrated podium success.

Ten points now separate the leading five riders in the standings ahead of Knockhill (June 16/17/18).

Superbike Race Two

Kyle Ryde had taken the spoils in Saturday’s BikeSocial Sprint Race and again he launched off the line with an incredible start from the front row with Leon Haslam and O’Halloran in close contention.

A great race ensued with fortunes changing every lap and whilst Ryde held the advantage, behind him Haslam and O’Halloran were trading blows for second place as Tommy Bridewell looked to join the lead group.

In the battle for the win, Ryde was still leading the pack, but he couldn’t bridge the advantage and behind him, Haslam, Bridewell and O’Halloran were continuously swapping positions in their quest for the top three.

It was heartbreak for Ryde though when he crashed out of the lead on lap 12 and with debris from the stricken LAMI OMG Racing Yamaha, the BMW Safety Car was deployed as the Herock Racesafe Marshals cleared the crash damage.

There was then just five laps left to decide the winner when the race resumed and it became a six-way battle initially as Haslam instantly made a move on Bridewell, but O’Halloran made a pass too and that eased the lone BeerMonster Ducati into third. His team-mate Glenn Irwin had crashed out at Redgate unhurt.

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O’Halloran hit the front of the pack, but Haslam instantly fought back to regain the position, but into Redgate on lap 16 Bridewell made a decisive pass to snatch the advantage with O’Halloran still holding third place. Josh Brookes though had also joined the battle at the front after the BMW Safety Car period brought the FHO Racing rider back into contention.

Bridewell was leading with three laps remaining ahead of O’Halloran and Haslam, but the ROKiT BMW Motorrad rider was back into second place with a move at Redgate, only for his McAMS Yamaha rival to regain the advantage at McLeans.

O’Halloran then held the lead and was fending off the advances of Bridewell on the BeerMonster Ducati but the V4 R then experienced a technical issue that saw Bridewell tumble down the order. Meanwhile, Ryan Vickers then put himself firmly in the podium fight and was up to second place ahead of Haslam and Brookes.

O’Halloran had the edge at the chequered flag to return to his winning ways after what had been a very troublesome start to the season for the Aussie.

Ryan Vickers celebrated an emotional debut podium in British Superbike while Brookes completed the rostrum to move into the championship lead.

Superbike Race Two Results

Superbike Race Three

In the final race, Ryde again got a fantastic start to lead the pack ahead of his team-mate Vickers and Bridewell. The BeerMonster Ducati rider was soon into second place, but Haslam was moving up the order too over the opening laps and he was soon into fourth.

On the same lap, Andrew Irwin’s difficult weekend came to a premature end when he crashed out with Storm Stacey at the Melbourne Loop. Andrew Irwin was penalised with three penalty points and a drop of three grid positions for his next race, following the incident.

Ryde was holding the advantage at the front but Bridewell continued to pile on the pressure and the pair eased out an advantage, but over the final two laps, the home contender had the edge to take his third win of the season.

Bridewell’s second place fired him back ahead in the championship standings, but only by three points as his team-mate Glenn Irwin carved his way through the pack from 11th on the grid to finish third and hold second in the title fight ahead of Knockhill.

Vickers continued his strong weekend with a fourth place finish as he led the next on track pack ahead of a Christian Iddon, who overcame illness to take his best result of the season with fifth for the Oxford Products Racing Ducati team.

Overheating problems on the McAms Yamaha had restrained the potential of Jason O’Halloran. The race two victor saw his top end speed curtailed in this final bout but managed to bring home good points from a seventh place finish.

Josh Brookes was racing around eighth in the early parts of the race but as the laps counted down the two-time champ started losing positions as he strugged with brake problems, eventually slipping all the way back to 13th by the flag. Brookes is now third in the championship, five-points adrift of points leader Tommy Bridewell.

Haslam scored the most points across the Oulton Park and Donington Park events to be crowned the winner of the Milwaukee Spring Grand Slam trophy.

Superbike Race Three Results

BSB Rider Quotes

Kyle Ryde

“Every track we have been on the podium so far this year and that was my aim but I think Knockhill will be tough! It’s been a great weekend in front of the home fans at my favourite track and obviously the weather’s been great to us. Hopefully everyone’s enjoyed the racing this weekend! The crash in race two, I didn’t do anything different. I just had a little crash at turn one. Unfortunately, the bike went end over end and clattered me in the knee so I had a big ice pack on it between the races. This track I always have gone well around and I have done what I wanted to do this weekend. I had one tip off and two wins, so I am proud with this weekend. I am sure after 25-minutes home I will celebrate this weekend with my grandad and a beer!”

Josh Brookes

“We made good progress in this morning’s warm up, so I had high hopes for the first race of the day. I got a decent start but found myself mixed up with other peoples rhythm, I lost a few places and the race wasn’t developing how I thought it would. I then found my rhythm and got the feeling with the bike and started to make some passes and started to move forward, but by that point the race had really spread out. We then had the safety car which bunched everyone up. Once the race got going again, I was trying to be apart of the action as much as possible, it was a great race and I was buzzing to be back on the podium. The last race however has finished the day on a bit of a downer, I had some brake issues, and when I tried to brake with lean angle it was vibrating and accelerated the chances of losing the front. We’ve got to put this weekend behind us a little, take the points and the podium as a positive but move forward to the next round at Knockhill and put things right there.”

Jason O’Halloran

“I’m really chuffed to get our first win of the year, it’s obviously been a bit of a rollercoaster these first three rounds but we know we’ve had the speed, we’ve just had to put it together. I settled into the race really well, the safety car came out and then we made the most of the last four or five laps and managed to get our first win of the year. I’m disappointed with the last race, I felt like we had good speed and the bike felt good but we had an overheating issue which hurt our straight line speed. I’m sure the guys will get on top of that and fix it for the next one. All in all a positive weekend, three finishes, competitive throughout and our first win of the year.”

Tommy Bridewell

“I was a little bit deflated after the first race, but we turned it around and Tommy Bridewellwhilst it’s always disappointing to have a technical issue, it’s ended up being a strong weekend for both me and the team with two podiums. Donington has seen mixed results for Ducati in the past but full credit to the team as you could see how strong the bike was. Kyle just had that little bit extra which meant I couldn’t get close enough to make a pass in the last race. Both the team and I are putting in so much effort and the season is shaping up quite nicely for us.”

Glenn Irwin

“We arrived at Donington excited about the weekend, but it turned out to be Glenn Irwinharder than the previous rounds so full credit to everyone in the team to end the weekend with two BeerMonster Ducatis on the podium once more. The crash was just one of those things and no-one’s fault, but we bounced back well, and I think we’ll be even stronger when we get to the circuits which are upcoming. Donington was a strong track for the Yamaha, but Kyle rode faultlessly as did Tommy and although we were running out of tyre at the end, we got the job done and 1-2 in the championship is a pretty good place to be ahead of the break.”

Peter Hickman

“This weekend hasn’t turned out the way we expected to be honest. The new surface is awesome but it’s really grippy, which normally for us and the BMW is a good thing but this weekend it seems to have done the complete opposite for some reason, and to be totally honest none of us really know why. We’ve not really moved forward all weekend from the first session; the bike doesn’t feel bad and yet we’re just not fast, and we don’t know why. To be at least in the fight we needed between half a second to 0.7s and I don’t know where I could have found it, I was too far away especially on the early laps I couldn’t go as fast as everyone else. From half distance onwards, I’m similar, only actually 0.3s away from the other guys, we’re just not really getting the speed we need. We do have positives from the weekend; we finished all three races, we got points in all three races and Josh got a podium, and from here we go to the Isle of Man!”

British Superbike Championship Points