DAO Racing Honda are primed and ready for the 2026 ZYN British Superbike curtain-raiser at Oulton Park, with Josh Brookes and Lee Jackson focussed on making a strong start to their campaigns over the May Bank Holiday Weekend (May 2/3/4).

Following a long six months of waiting the 2026 ZYN British Superbike roars back into life at Oulton Park, and DAO Racing Honda, after four separate successful pre-season tests in Spain, and the UK, are prepared to do battle.

Josh Brookes heads into the season opener with optimism after what was a tricky pre-season testing campaign for the Australian. The ‘Bad Boy’ made steady progress throughout each of the four tests in Spain and the UK, however he still feels there is more to come from his Fireblade and hopes to unlock that at Oulton Park.

Brookes and DAO Racing have fond memories of Oulton Park, it was the setting for the teams’ maiden BSB victory in the BSB class, with Brookes taking the victory after a hard-fought battle with Leon Haslam back in September 2025, and he and the team are hoping for a repeat performance.

Lincolnshire’s Lee Jackson prepares to travel across the country to one his favourite circuits in the UK, a venue in which he took his career first British Superbike victory in 2022.

Jackson enjoyed a positive finish to his pre-season testing campaign, after leaving the second official test with a stronger feeling, and a defined understanding of which direction he wants to go with his Fireblade.

Oulton Park plays host to the opening round of the season for the second year in succession, with the undulating 2.6-mile fan favourite circuits provides some of the best racing on the calendar, and that close action will be show across the long weekend.

Josh Brookes: “Going into the opening round I feel like we’re little bit behind the eight ball, I was hoping we’d be a little bit stronger, and I can’t be exactly sure why we haven’t achieved our targets that we’d set out for.

“But, that being said, we have made some progress during pre-season with the changes we’ve made to the bike, we have improved the package, but we just haven’t seen an improvement to the lap time much, so it’s difficult to say how well the improvements have gone. So, we must enter the opening round and see how we fair under a race situation, all in all I’m excited to get back to racing.”

Lee Jackson: “Finally the first round of the season is here and I’m really looking forward to it. Oulton Park is somewhere I’ve had good success at in the past, on different manufactures and in other classes. Some riders find the circuit tricky, but I love it, it’s undulating and the elevation changes make it an amazing place to ride.

“I’m looking forward to getting the first round under our belts, especially after having a long layoff since the final round of 2025, I’m someone who prefers to race rather than test, testing isn’t my forte, but after the work we’ve put in during the winter I feel we’re in a decent place heading into the weekend. We’ve still got a little bit to do but if we can get three good point scoring results then I’ll be happy.”

Team manager Jonny Bagnall: “As a team, we’re really excited to get to Oulton Park for the opening round of the season, testing is great, it gets everyone back up to speed but it’s not like going racing, that’s what we’re here for.

“Our testing programme went well, we worked through plenty of things that we wanted to assess, and I feel we’re in a good place, even though we still have a couple things we’d like to try but that won’t hinder us this weekend.

“Oulton Park holds special memories for us a team, it was the site of our maiden victory in BSB and we’re hopeful that we can replicate that success this weekend. Both Josh and Lee historically race well at Oulton Park, and although the elevation changes and undulations don’t tend to suit our bike that well, I’m confident we’ll have a solid weekend and make a good start to our season.”

The team will be on track on Saturday May 2 for the opening two free practice sessions, with qualifying and race one on Sunday May 3 with two races on Monday May 4.