2021 British Superbike Championship
Round Five Donington
Images by David Yeomans
The Bennetts British Superbike Championship hits Donington Park this weekend (August 13/14/15); marking the halfway point of the Main Season as the battle to feature in the top-eight of the standings intensifies ahead of the end of season Showdown.
Jason O’Halloran is the rider on form ahead of round five; the McAMS Yamaha took a triple win last time out at Thruxton, adding to his tally of victories to lead the standings ahead of VisionTrack Ducati’s Christian Iddon.
Jason O’Halloran – McAMS Yamaha
“I am feeling really good on the McAMS Yamaha; obviously coming off the back of three wins at Thruxton gives me a huge amount of confidence going forwards. Heading to Donington Park, it is a track that I love racing at, we were on the podium there last year, and even more importantly we had a really good pre-season test there, so I expect another strong weekend. I think it will be even more competitive this weekend as Thruxton was a little bit of a different circuit, and I think there are quite a few of us who go well at Donington Park, so I think we are set for some great racing. I think for sure when someone starts winning a bit everyone starts to think they need to beat that person. That brings a little bit of pressure, but it is wanted pressure as that is where we want to be! It’s a good thing and it’s a privilege as we have worked hard to be in this position. We will just keep focused on our own work and not get too carried away. There is a long way to go yet and we have only had four rounds, but to have seven wins and nine podiums is an amazing achievement so we want to keep that going.”
Four different riders have won races so far in 2021, including Christian Iddon, Tarran Mackenzie and Danny Buchan, and they currently hold the top four positions in the standings.
However a further five riders have celebrated podium finishes, including rookie Rory Skinner and Danny Kent, who accomplished their first top three finish in Bennetts BSB at Knockhill and Thruxton respectively.
Two-time and defending champion Josh Brookes though is yet to grace the podium and will need to get his campaign back on track this weekend if he is going to make it into the top-eight Showdown later in the year. Brookes is currently 12th on the championship ladder with 58-points while countryman O’Halloran leads the way on 232-points. However, Brookes is only 30-points away from making it up into that top-eight.
Josh Brookes
“I don’t know whether it’s a good thing or not, but I don’t really have a lot to say! The opening rounds Josh Brookeshave been troubling me, my team keep reassuring me that the bike is fine, so I have to find a way of dealing with things better. Christian has dealt with the changes fine and I need to find a way. I’m not setting any goals for Donington, I’ll just take each session as it comes and see what that allows me to do.”
Last year’s race-winner, Tommy Bridewell holds fifth position ahead of this weekend’s three races, but only by a slender two points from Peter Hickman on the FHO Racing BMW. The FS-3 Racing Kawasaki pairing of Rory Skinner and Lee Jackson currently lock out the final two places in the top eight ahead of this weekend’s action.
Just outside the top eight ahead of Donington Park is Bradley Ray, but only by two points, whilst Honda Racing’s Glenn Irwin is just seven points adrift, as he returns to the circuit where the team claimed a double victory last year, and he scored a trio of second place finishes.
Ryan Vickers had his strongest weekend in the championship at Thruxton, the RAF Regular & Reserve Kawasaki rider was edging closer to securing his first podium finish.
Whilst the battle for the Championship continues to hot up, this weekend also marks the start of the Milwaukee Summer Grand Slam, as the riders will battle it out for a chance to win a £50,000 prize across the six races at the next two rounds.
The ultimate prize of £50,000 will be awarded if a rider can deliver an unstoppable performance across the Donington Park National (August 13/14/15) and Cadwell Park (August 20/21/22) events to win all six races. The last rider to succeed with six consecutive race wins was Brookes onboard the Milwaukee Yamaha back in 2015.
If a rider can win five of the six races, then they will claim a £25,000 prize, which was most recently achieved by Leon Haslam in his title-winning 2018 campaign. The final chance to win will be if a rider can be victorious in four of the six races, with a £10,000 prize. Most recently, Scott Redding celebrated four in a row during his 2019 title-winning season.
BSB Championship Standings
Source: MCNews.com.au