Honda Racing delivers progress in all-action BSB Round 2 at Donington Park
Donington Park GPA full day's racing for both Superbike and Supersport teams brought encouragement for Honda Racing at Donington Park.
Honda Racing was back at full strength at Donington Park to close out Round 2 of the 2025 Bennetts British Superbike Championship. Overnight, the team completely rebuilt the Honda Fireblade of 2024 vice-champion Tommy Bridewell after his crash in Saturday’s opening Superbike race before work began again during the morning Warm-Up to hone its performance to his needs.
Bridewell would line up eighth on the grid for the second race, just two spots behind his team-mate Andrew Irwin. It had been an encouraging start to the weekend for Irwin, who was forced to sit out the opening races of the season at Oulton Park two weeks earlier after crashing out of the Qualifying session and picking up a shoulder injury.
Having played himself back into contention through Friday and Saturday, Irwin was eager for Sunday’s races. At the start of Race 2, both he and Bridewell got away cleanly and, in the opening laps, Irwin pushed up into the top four and ran convincingly in the lead pack before slipping back in a hard-fought race, with the two Honda Fireblades finishing in seventh and eighth place respectively.
Race 3 saw the Fireblades line up with Irwin on the outside of the third row in seventh place and Bridewell in the middle of the fourth row in 11th based on their fastest laps in race 2. In the end, the two Fireblades changed places, as Irwin slipped back down the order after a strong start and Bridewell overcame handling issues to finish in seventh at the chequered flag.
In the Supersport category, five-time champion Jack Kennedy was determined to reach the podium in a bid to kick-start his title defence. Having raced as high as second in a furious battle on Saturday, he took off from the start and entered another wild three-way battle for the lead.
After taking the lead at one-third distance, the Irishman looked comfortable but all too soon he began to suffer tyre degradation issues that left him powerless to defend against his pursuers. In the end, Kennedy crossed the line in fifth place, while team-mate Dean Harrison ended the race in seventh place - both of the Honda CBR600RRs having set the same fastest lap time to within one thousandth of a second of each other at 1m 30.469s.
Honda Racing now prepares to take on the Isle of Man TT between May 26 and June 8, with the road racing team of Dean Harrison and John McGuinness MBE. The 2025 Bennetts British Superbike Championship will resume at Snetterton on June 20-22.
“It was effectively a new bike today after my crash yesterday, which didn’t miss a beat - so thank you to Ryan and Tom and the whole team for building it. We even had people from the Supersport garage as well as our own guys getting the bike built overnight, everyone was chipping in. This morning’s times (20th place in Warm-Up) weren't really representative. We didn’t have a problem, it’s just that the tyre rules we have in BSB at the moment are just madness. Because of that, the morning sessions, FP3 on Saturday and Warm-Up on Sunday are just a waste of time. You make sure that everything’s bolted on and that’s it. The first race today, we went back to my 2024 setup to get a bit of an understanding. I think for me the crux of it is that we’ve got a new tyre, a bit grippier, and it certainly looks like it has benefitted Yamaha and Ducati more than us. My pace is very, very similar to last year, my times are almost identical to last year and I’m riding as hard as I can without crashing - and yesterday I went a bit harder than that and I crashed! Last year, I was riding that hard to fight for podiums. This year, I’m riding that hard for sixth or seventh and the only difference is how our bikes are responding to the new tyre. It’s certainly frustrating so we’ve all got a bit of work to do together to find that next step.”
“It was effectively a new bike today after my crash yesterday, which didn’t miss a beat - so thank you to Ryan and Tom and the whole team for building it. We even had people from the Supersport garage as well as our own guys getting the bike built overnight, everyone was chipping in. This morning’s times (20th place in Warm-Up) weren't really representative. We didn’t have a problem, it’s just that the tyre rules we have in BSB at the moment are just madness. Because of that, the morning sessions, FP3 on Saturday and Warm-Up on Sunday are just a waste of time. You make sure that everything’s bolted on and that’s it. The first race today, we went back to my 2024 setup to get a bit of an understanding. I think for me the crux of it is that we’ve got a new tyre, a bit grippier, and it certainly looks like it has benefitted Yamaha and Ducati more than us. My pace is very, very similar to last year, my times are almost identical to last year and I’m riding as hard as I can without crashing - and yesterday I went a bit harder than that and I crashed! Last year, I was riding that hard to fight for podiums. This year, I’m riding that hard for sixth or seventh and the only difference is how our bikes are responding to the new tyre. It’s certainly frustrating so we’ve all got a bit of work to do together to find that next step.”
“Honestly, if you had said before we started this weekend that I would come straight off the back of two weeks carrying an injury to score two top-10 finishes and an 11th I would have been happy. We have to take where I am, and I’m not fit, and take that as a positive because over one lap we’re really close to the pace so now we have a gap and I’ll be working really hard on my fitness to get it back to where it was before the injury. I’ll knuckle down and look forward to Snetterton, which will feel much more like a normal weekend. I really want to say thank you to my team, to Spider, Johnny, Dan, Simon and Cammy because it’s a busy period for them, the hospitality crew and everyone at Honda Racing when they’re competing with the road races at the North West 200 and of course the TT and still working hard on the British Superbike Championship all weekend from start to finish. Good luck to Dean and John (McGuinness) at the TT.”
“Honestly, if you had said before we started this weekend that I would come straight off the back of two weeks carrying an injury to score two top-10 finishes and an 11th I would have been happy. We have to take where I am, and I’m not fit, and take that as a positive because over one lap we’re really close to the pace so now we have a gap and I’ll be working really hard on my fitness to get it back to where it was before the injury. I’ll knuckle down and look forward to Snetterton, which will feel much more like a normal weekend. I really want to say thank you to my team, to Spider, Johnny, Dan, Simon and Cammy because it’s a busy period for them, the hospitality crew and everyone at Honda Racing when they’re competing with the road races at the North West 200 and of course the TT and still working hard on the British Superbike Championship all weekend from start to finish. Good luck to Dean and John (McGuinness) at the TT.”