Heartbreak for Honda Racing UK with double DNF
Donington Park GPRound three of the Bennetts British Superbike Championship roared into life at Donington Park this weekend and welcomed the return of Omologato Superpole on the longer 2.49-mile GP circuit.
Round three of the Bennetts British Superbike Championship roared into life at Donington Park this weekend and welcomed the return of Omologato Superpole on the longer 2.49-mile GP circuit.
Glorious sunshine and a brand-new track surface provided the perfect setting for lap times to tumble heading into the first Superpole Saturday of the year. Andrew Irwin set off aboard his Honda CBR1000RR-R Fireblade SP fifth on the road to set his single flying lap. He would go on to break the 1:28 barrier for the first time of the weekend and set a lap time of 1:27.933 placing him first with nine riders still to go. By the end of the session, his best lap would place him 5th on the grid.
Building into the weekend, Tom Neave worked diligently through his program to find a comfortable setting and set a 1:28.671 in eBay Qualifying placing him 22nd on the grid.
As the lights went out, both riders made good starts off the line and by Craner Curves Andrew was up into fourth position, only to lose places by the end of lap one as other riders pressed forwards. On lap two, heading into the Melbourne loop Andrew moved to overtake Christian Iddon for 6th as he ran wide, only for the two to come together towards the corner exit causing both riders to crash. The crash was declared a racing incident and Andrew will line up 11th on the grid for race two.
Tom Neave’s race showed great promise as he too was able to climb up the order as the early laps of the race ticked by. Sadly, he retired on lap five with a technical problem. He starts race two from twentieth.
The two riders will go again tomorrow, Sunday 21st May, in the two feature races of the weekend, the first of which will take place at 13.15.
When I look back at my times over the weekend I’ve made big progress, it’s not all negative. The bigger picture doesn't look great and it’s certainly not where I want to be but I have been making progressive steps as the weekend has gone on. It was unfortunate not to finish the race due to a technical DNF and not get the chance to show my true potential. But, tomorrow is a new day, the weather is consistent and we have two long races to get stuck in.
It has been really positive so far to be honest. We started with good pace in FP1 and progressed from there with good pace and without throwing tyres at it. We have done a lot of homework for the longer races tomorrow. We were unfortunate to be involved in a racing incident today which took us out of the race, but we have two more races tomorrow. We start 11th and we can do a good job from there and try to get a good start and go forward from there. 20 laps is going to be a long race around here, nobody has done 20 laps on the tyre yet. So let's see where we are, but honestly, I think we can do a good job. Hopefully we have a solid start in race two and build from there. I am fast with the X and fast with the 0.
