2022 BSB Round 3 Donington Park
Hi everyone and welcome back to the latest instalment of action from the British Superbike championship.
The latest round came from Donington Park but on the shorter national circuit.
Let’s get straight into the action with the Supersport championship. Harry Truelove once again racing on the Appleyard Yamaha. Harry is in great form and continued that by starting the first race from 3rd on the grid.
Harry had two great rides over the weekend by collecting two 3rd place finishes. So far this season Harry scored points in each race and has been on the podium four times.
On to the Honda Talent Cup now, and a few more riders joining the grid for J&S. Welcome back to Sullivan Mounsey who missed the first few rounds due to not having a team to ride for and also Alfie Davidson joining Harrison Crosby on the grid.
Qualifying saw Sullivan make a great start to the weekend by starting from 6th on the grid, with Harrison in 10th and Alfie in 25th.
The opening race saw Alfie hold onto his starting position and finished in 25th place, Harrison secured a 10th place finish, and Sullivan came back with a bang in his first race back and finished in 5th position.
In the second race for the Honda Talent Cup Alfie just missed out on the final points-scoring place by coming home in 17th, Harrison this time just missed out on a top 10 and finished in 11th place. Once again Sullivan bagged himself a 5th place and a great return to the championship.
In Superstock 1000, J&S once again had a stacked grid of supported riders with Billy McConnell 4th, Lewis Rollo 2nd, Tom Ward 11th, Matt Truelove 18th, Tom Oliver 13th, Charlie Nesbitt 8th, Joe Francis 9th all qualifying within the first 6 rows of the grid.
The first race was red-flagged and then restarted which saw a number of riders unable to make the restart. Both Billy and Lewis were unable to make the restart and this resulted in a starting place at the back of the grid for the second race of the weekend.
The riders who did complete the restart all managed to score points apart from Joe Francis who suffered a technical problem with his bike. Tom ward came home in 6th place, Charlie Nesbitt crossed the line in 9th with Tom Oliver in 12th position.
The second race saw a lot of the riders with plenty of work to do. With Billy starting way down the grid in 34th, Lewis Rollo in 33rd, Matt Truelove in 35th, and Joe Francis 24th. All the J&S supported riders improved from the starting positions, and all scored points bar one. Matt came home in 20th place and it wasn’t for the lack of trying in the race to gain positions where he could. Tom Oliver came home in 14th position to score 2 points, Lewis made up an incredible 20 positions to finish in 13th, and Joe had a solid race and worked his way through the field to come home in 11th and just outside the top 10. Next up was Tom ward on the Aprilia and he finished in 8th, Charlie Nesbitt had a great result and finished in 5th and claimed his second top 5 finish of the season. Billy had a great ride and definitely had his elbows out and crossed the line in an amazing 6th position, he climbed an amazing 28 places.
Junior Superstock saw Osian Jones qualify in 22nd just in front of Ed Best who started in 23rd, then came Zak Shelton in 27th and Jacob Hatch right behind in 28th. All the times were tightly bunched together and nothing much separated the whole field.
The race saw three of the riders improve from the starting positions. Only Osian had to retire after suffering with arm pump. But Ed improved to cross the line in 14th and secure a couple of championship points. Jacob finished the race in 22nd place and this time it was Zak who was just behind in 23rd.
Junior Supersport now and two new riders for J&S as we welcome Oliver Morgan-Edwards and Finn Smart-Weeden. In qualifying, Oliver would start from 25th on the grid for the first race of the season, while Finn would be in the middle of the third row in 8th place.
The first race saw Oliver improve to finish in 21st, and Finn would drop three places to finish in 11th but still grab a hand full of points.
The final race of the weekend and Finn this time crept into the top 10 with a 9th place finish, and Oliver gained a couple of places from his starting position to cross the line in 25th place.
Superbike class and a horrible weekend for Luke Mossey who had a massive crash in qualifying and the bike was a total wreck, this meant his team had a tough job to rebuild the bike ready for the first race. But it wasn’t meant to be and Luke missed all the races for this weekend. Another rider to have a big crash was Dan Jones who fell coming down the Craner Curves. Dan would qualify in 28th place, Leon Jeacock would start from 25th while North West race winner Glenn Irwin would be on the outside of the third row in 9th.
First race and Leon moved up 3 positions to finish in 22nd, Dan, unfortunately, didn’t make the start of the first race after the crash in qualifying. Glenn broke away with the leading group of riders and would finish the race in 5th place to keep his championship fight alive.
The second race saw multiply DNFs for all but one rider, the only rider to finish was Dan Jones who came home in 19th place. Leon crashed out on the opening lap and Glenn both had DNF with Glenn suffering a technical problem
The third and final race of the weekend again saw both Leon and Glenn fail to finish and Dan just missed out on the final point by finishing in 16th position. Glenn was unable to finish due to having to avoid Leon Haslam, who had a big crash at the bottom of the Craner curves sections.
So no podiums or race wins this weekend but plenty of positives for most of the riders. So a little break for the championship now as the small matter of the Isle of Man TT returns. It’s been far too long since bikes were racing around the famous Mountain circuit. Glenn Irwin will be making his debut at the TT races so keep glued for updates on how he gets on - and look out for his new Frank Thomas suit!
Thanks for reading.
Danny