DAO Racing Honda are prepared and ready to go to work at the opening two unofficial tests of 2026 at the southern Spanish tracks of Monteblanco and Andulacia, where both Josh Brookes and Lee Jackson will get their first tastes of the 2026 spec DAO Racing Honda CBR1000RR-R Fireblades.

Five months have passed since the flag dropped at Brands Hatch in mid-October to signal the end of the 2025 British Superbike Championship, a year which saw the team achieve their first podium and race win in the blue-ribband superbike class after a switch to Honda machinery.

Following a short period of reflection and analysis, the team began to work hard behind the scenes making improvements to the Fireblade package for the 2026 season, with a host of upgrades being implemented ahead of an intensive testing programme which beings on Tuesday March 10.

During the winter break Josh Brookes returned home to Australia, however he didn’t stop putting in the laps. The team provided the Bringelley born man with a superstock trim Fireblade, in which he would compete in the annual St George Summer Night Series at the Sydney Motorsports Park.

Brookes, a double British Superbike Champion, is now fully prepared and raring to return to the UK as he prepares his assault on the Championship in search of a hat-trick of BSB titles.

Likewise Lee Jackson has enjoyedhis winter break, which has seen the Lincolnshire man work hard on his fitness to ensure he is at peak condition heading into the unofficial tests. Jackson, who missed three rounds of the 2025 season due to injury, has recently completed a personal riding shakedown programme on a second superstock trim machine provided by the team, and he to is equally prepared to begin testing on Tuesday March 10.

The team will be on track at Monteblanco for an initial two days of action on March 10 and 11 before travelling across the country to Andalucia for the second test on March 16 & 17.

Josh Brookes: “I’m expecting this test to be a re-run of what we tried to do before Christmas, we headed to Spain and due to the weather it was pretty much a wash out and it proved to be unproductive due to that reason.

“Our idea then was to try new components and I have high hopes that we find improvements with them, I’ve learned a lot during my time at home, I’ve done a lot of laps and that has highlighted some areas that we were focussed on to improve, so it’s pointing in a direction. It’s positive that we have a clear indiction of where we want to focus and conduct our work.

“The team will have planned the structure of these tests, and what we’ll be able to go through, they have been working hard to give myself and Lee something very similar. All the focus will be on exercising these ideas we’ve had in mind for some time.

“I’m ready to go, like I’ve said I’ve done a lot of laps back at home during the off-season. We’ll go through the procedure in a practical manner, there is still plenty of time before round one to fine tune everything to ensure we have a good start to the 2026 British Superbike season.”

Lee Jackson: “I’m excited about getting back out on the bike, the last time I rode the bike was at a cold and wet Andalusia in December where were just going over a few things that we thought of during 2025. That was needed because it was in areas that both myself and Josh thought the bike could improve, but due to the conditions we couldn’t really asses those changes.

“So I’m looking forward to the first test of 2026 for those reasons, I’m eager to see if those changes relate on track. I have a new crew chief this season so it gives us the time to start working together. I’m more than ready to get back on my bike, last season for me was a tough year and I know as a team we can improve the bike over the winter, we still have some components to try and asses their performance, we have four days to get through our programme and get our season started on the right foot.”

Team manager Jonny Bagnall: “As a team we’ve had a few changes during the winter so we’re excited to see how they will perform, obviously we have been working hard in the background on specific points that were raised towards the end of last season.

“With 2025 being our first year with Honda we followed suit, but now with our experience of the bikes we’re going to put our spin on it this year, alongside the riders’ experience and what they’ve been asking for. So we’re excited to put that to test on track, we have new components arriving and as team we’re all looking forward to getting back together and getting 2026 started.”