Honda Racing UK on the hunt at Thruxton
Thruxton
The Honda Racing UK team have felt the highs and lows of racing this afternoon at the fourth round of the 2021 Bennetts British Superbike Championship at Thruxton, after Glenn Irwin crashed out of podium contention during the closing stages of Race 1.
The Honda team got today off to a flying start with Glenn scoring the second fastest Qualifying time aboard the CBR1000RR-R Fireblade SP to take his first front row start of the season. By mid-race Glenn was sitting fourth after Peter Hickman and Christian Iddon had both made passes, but during the closing the stages Glenn was hot on their heels and wanting a podium spot.
Passing Hickman, Glenn was up to third on the penultimate lap and the first podium of the year was looking set for the Honda team, but celebrations were cut short after Glenn suffered a massive highside and crashed out of the running, thankfully unhurt.
Glenn's teammates Ryo Mizuno and Takumi Takahashi continue to learn the fast and flowing Hampshire circuit. Making their race debut at Thruxton and able to make up places from their qualifying positions during Race 1, Takumi came home 20th and Ryo 21st.
For the teams' Pirelli National Superstock contender Tom Neave it's been a strong round so far. Third fastest in yesterday's combined practice, Tom Qualified sixth for today's 15-lap race. With a good start off the line Tom enjoyed a solid race, as well as some on-track battles to take the chequered flag fifth aboard the Fireblade.
The team will be back in action tomorrow (Sunday 1 August) for two more Superbike races and the final Superstock race of the weekend.
There's a lot of positives to be taken from Race 1 today and I'm looking forward to the two longer races tomorrow. We seem to be able to manage the tyre wear over a shorter race, I'm aware that everyone can improve and we'll continue to do our work in warm up. I'm not going to dwell too much on the crash today, I'm sorry to the team for the added work and thank you to them for rebuilding the bike. I am looking forward to the longer 20-lap races tomorrow, as 13 here was fun!
I had a good start in FP3, but the qualifying session did not go as I had imagined and I could not make a good flow in the race. The track is fast and all the corners are fun to ride, so I will try my best to finish with a smile tomorrow.
This is a very fast circuit and all corners are fast corners! It's not always easy to understand the UK circuits and so far this weekend I haven't really understood this track so struggling to enjoy a little. Tomorrow we have warm up and two longer races, so I look forward to working with the team and seeing how we get on.
I said to myself at the start of the weekend if I can keep in the top two rows I'd be happy and we did that in qualifying. I got up to third, but I completely played my game wrong. I felt I had so much more in the tank on those first few laps when I was third, but I thought I'd save my tyre, but in fact I allowed the others to catch me up and pass me, I then spent the rest of the race catching them. Early on I should have just got my head down and got to the front, I learnt a lot and I am disappointed with fifth, tomorrow I'm going to put it on the line a little more and fight for the podium.