We hope you had a fantastic bank holiday weekend ?

Apolgies for the delay with last weeks race report, it has been a busy week with very little time to stand still.

Donington was a landmark weekend for the team and we all had a great time. It was our absolute pleasure to welcome Oliver Barr back to the team, this time with his helmet leathers and boots. 

Having both our Yamaha R6 Supersport machines running was absolutely fantatstic !! We all had a number of those ‘pinch me’ moments as we reflected on where we were, from where we have come from, hugely satisfying..

Friday : Free Practice Session 1&2 

As is the depth of field, riders are seperated into two groups, A or B. Both our riders were selected to go in Group B. 

Alastair used his free practice to work on ‘feeling,’  he used the two 25 minute sessions to make subtle adjustments. Donington is a different circuit to Oulton Park and whilst the base settings would be ok, setup for Donington would require some fine tuning. He ended Session 1 in P8 and Session 2 in P10 securing P19 overall as others riders went quicker whilst we were trying some different things.

Oliver just went out and rode his bike, nice and simple really. He knows Doningtion very well from his previous club meetings but under no illusion he knew the pace would be quicker. Unphased and extremely relaxed he really enjoyed getting to know “Eileen.” He ended Session 1 in P18 and Session 2 in P12 which was P25 overall. A very solid first day at the office..

In summary both sides of the garage worked really well together. Each rider and machine had a different agenda and objective. The kettle went on the biscuites were opened and it was smiles all round. 

Saturday Morning : Qualification (Group B)

Alastair was one of the first competitors on track with his new tyres and he managed to equal the most laps completed with 13. His fastest came on lap 8 with a lap time of 1.31.84. This would secure him P7 for the group, P14 on the grid for the race. It would be fair to say that everyone was a little disappointed with this. Alastair still felt the bike had more to give. He still wanted a few more adjustments to give him the feeling he wanted so he could try to push on in the race.

Oliver did an absolutely fantastic job to automatically qualify for the race negating the need to take part in the ‘last chance qualifier.’ As we have mentioned in previous race reports there are 55 competitors in the class, only 38 automatically qualify (top 19 from each group) and two more get through from the LCQ race. Oliver ended the session in P18, P36 on the grid. By his own admission, he could have gone quicker but he felt a little tense, which is understandable on his debut.

Saturday Afternoon : 12 Lap Sprint Race 

As we all took to the grid at 5pm the evening sunshine was fabulous. The shades were on, the brollies were up and both riders were laser focussed. 

The lights went out and they both made great starts. Alastair went in and out of  Redgate unscathed and as they tipped down Craner curves the great exchange began. Oliver on the other hand dived down the inside on the approach to Redgate and managed to out break a number of his competitors. 

Alastair is a master of his craft and whilst happy to take a risk, it has to be a calcualted one. His patience paid off on lap 3 as his set his fastest lap of the weekend with a 1.31.32. That 0.5 of a second would improve our grid position for Sundays race so now he could concentrate on his overtakes, he did just that to finish P11.  The BSB paddock welcomed 3 world supersport wildcards to compete with us, Can Oncu, Tom Booth-Amos and Ondrej Vostatek. If we discount their positions it is technically a P8 for Alastair.

Oliver had some real fun in his first ever National Supersport race. He really enjoyed battling hard with a number of his fellow competitors and he admitted he got a little too excited in parts and could have been quicker. That said, on the penultimate lap, similar to Alastair he recorded his fastest lap of the weekend with a 1.32.65 which is an improvement of 1.35 secs. Lots of hugs and smiles in Parc Ferme and deservadly so.

Sunday Afternoon : 18 lap Feature Race  

Sundays condition were absolutely glorius, one of those red hot days that makes going racing even more fun. The mood in the camp was great and we were all very excited for our big race of the weekend.

Both Alastairs and Olivers grid positions were better for this race as they had both improved their lap times during the sprint race. Alastair would start from P11 with Oliver going from P23. As the siren went off to clear the grid it was a fist pumping frenzy, visors down, time to go racing. 

The lights went out and both the lads progressed nicely. Unfrortunately there was an incident half way around Redgate which involved a number of riders and machines bringing out the red flags. Luckily, neither of our riders were involved and they returned to pitlane. Fluids on board and tyre warmers on whilst we awaited the confirmation of a reduced 15 lap race and a 15 minute delay.

The new race would involve a quick start procedure and the race got underway cleanly. 

Alastair once again kept his nose clean and safely settled into his groove whilst Oliver had a lot of fun further down the field. Alastair battled really hard and impoved yet again by two race places to finish P9. The pace from the start of every race in the class this year is frankly unbelievable. The new homoligated machines seem to be doing very well for tyre life, we have to manage ours over the course of a race. We are not slow to get away, but we are looking at how we can get away faster to stay with them in the early part of the race.  

Oliver had his elbows, knees and neck out lap after lap. He was taking places and losing a few as the intensity on track increased. Despite being a little upset with his race when he returned to Parc Ferme, he progressed 3 race places at the chequered flag. P20 on his debut, a job well done in our eyes !!! 

Summary :

Alastair left Donington 6th in the Championship, still plenty more to come and we are heading in the right direction.

Our next round after the Isle of Man TT break will see us in Olivers back yard, Knockhill. June 14th – 16th, we can not wait to get up there. Seeing our Scottish friends will be fantastic.

On behalf of the whole team, thank you very much indeed for your continued support, we all really appreciate it !!