DAO Racing enjoyed a successful trip to Lincolnshire as they achieved their best results of the 2026 ZYN BSB season, with Lee Jackson bagging a brace of top-ten finishes, including a sixth-place finish on Sunday, while Josh Brookes collected Championship points in all three races across the Bank Holiday Monday bonanza.

Saturday’s free practice sessions saw both Josh and Lee experience mixed results in tricky conditions. Brookes would end the session 11th, putting him inside the all-important top 12, while Jackson was forced to fight it out in Q1 after just missing out on a spot in Superpole by three tenths of a second.

Sunday’s qualifying session would be a fruitful one, with Lee progressing through Q1 to join Josh in Superpole. Jackson would be first up for his solo lap, achieving a 1:26.680 to line him up 12th on the grid for the first feature race of the weekend. Josh would then take to the track 10 minutes later, also posting his fastest lap of the weekend to that point to secure 15th on the grid.

Later that afternoon, under bright Lincolnshire skies, the opening 18-lap race of the weekend got underway, with both Lee and Josh making great starts. After the opening lap, they sat eighth and 14th respectively.

By half race distance, Lee found himself in fifth place and in the fight for a podium place, after inheriting a handful of positions due to a series of incidents involving riders ahead of him.

The Lincolnshire man would then become embroiled in a battle with fellow Honda rider Jason O’Halloran and, with two laps to go, he made his way past to hold fifth place. However, on the final lap, he lost out to O’Halloran with a handful of corners to go and crossed the line sixth, collecting his best result of the season in the process.

Josh would endure a similarly positive race, taking the flag in ninth place, although it wasn’t without drama. He would be hit with a two-second penalty after causing a collision with Glenn Irwin; however, it wouldn’t affect his finishing position.

By virtue of their lap times achieved in Sunday’s first race, Monday’s Sprint race would see Lee start from ninth on the grid, with Josh two rows back in 13th.

After a gloomy start to the Bank Holiday action, the sun broke through the cloud for the 12-lap dice and, once again, the duo made solid starts off the lights, with Lee working hard to hold ninth and Josh dropping just one position after the opening lap.

The hometown hero then began to battle with Max Cook for seventh after inheriting a place following a crash for Rory Skinner. Jackson, who in the process improved on his personal-best lap time of the weekend, notched up a 1:26.449. He would continue to chase down the Bimota man, who still lay ahead; however, try as he might, he couldn’t find a way past as the flag came out, taking eighth place at the finish.

Brookes, who quickly regrouped after dropping a position on the opening lap, began to ride a lonely race as he held 13th and tried to hunt down Storm Stacey and Christian Iddon, who lay ahead. Josh would then collect 12th position on the final lap following a mistake for Iddon, and the Australian then rode strongly to the flag to collect a hatful of vital Championship points.

The third and final 18-lap feature race would see Lee start from 10th on the grid, with Josh 14th. However, in the break between races, the weather had taken a turn for the worse.

The threat of rain thankfully evaded the 2.3-mile venue and, off the start, both Lee and Josh made good leaps, sitting 11th and 16th respectively after the opening lap. Jackson would begin a race-long battle for the top ten; however, he lost out on the final lap in a dice with Ilya Mikhalchik, taking the flag in 11th.

After regrouping following a challenging opening sequence of laps, Brookes made a great late-race charge for the top ten, lapping consistently. However, he would just miss out on a top-ten finish in the race to the line, taking the chequered flag in 12th.

Josh Brookes: “We were expecting a weekend packed full of rain all the way through, and I feel like we’ve barely had a wet session all weekend. I was hoping that the weather would favour us results-wise because we are struggling in the dry, but we’ve just had to preserve and work with what we’ve had.

“Myself and the team have tried something different this weekend. With what we found at the last round, we did go away from that; however, because of the lack of grip we have been suffering from, we did inevitably go back to something like that, but I felt like it was a compromise. The edge grip I lost wasn’t worth the upright grip I gained, so we went back to a middle ground, and that was how we finished the weekend.

“I still didn’t have the pace, I was struggling to match the riders around me, but I hunted them down ahead from being consistent. At the start of the race, Lee was a fair way ahead of me, but at the end I was right behind him.

“It’s hard at the moment, I can’t sugarcoat it, I can’t promise it’s going to get better, we just have to accept it and keep our heads down.”

Lee Jackson: “It’s been a good weekend overall, even though it’s ended on a little sour note. We had limited dry track time on Friday night and Saturday, but from the word go, the bike balance has been good. We haven’t really changed the bike or the set-up too much over the weekend. It has been in a window that has worked well.

“The first race on Sunday, I made a good start and I rode well and I was in the mix. I was fortunate to pick up some places due to other people’s misfortune, but I was really pleased with sixth. It’s my best result of the season and I was happy to bring home a solid result for the whole team.

“We made a few changes for the Sprint race on Monday and the bike felt better. That helped us come home in eighth and I was feeling confident for the last race, but it just didn’t go to plan. The changes we made just didn’t work and I struggled to go forward. I’m disappointed for us all really; I know there was a lot more in that for us.

“But all in all, it’s been a positive weekend on the whole and we’ll move on to Assen now, where hopefully we can keep up this progress.”

Team Manager Jonny Bagnall: “On the whole, it has been a positive weekend for us. We’ve walked away with our best result of the year, with Lee’s sixth place on Sunday, and both sides of the garage feel like we’ve made progress with the package this weekend.

“Cadwell is one of those places that does suit the Fireblade, as we’ve seen this weekend, and it’s pleasing to get the results we’ve had. However, as a team, we don’t come here to leave without silverware.

“I feel we’re in a good place ahead of the next round at Assen, but we’ll not stop working to make the bike better and make sure we’re in the fight at Assen.”

Lee Jackson now sits 10th in the ZYN BSB Championship on 124 points, with Josh Brookes 15th on 103. The team now has a three-week break before heading to Europe for round nine of the series at the TT Circuit Assen on September 18-20, which will host the opening round of the Showdown.”