It was another strong weekend for the IN-Competition Aprilia team at round two of the ZYN British Superbike series at Donington Park. Alfie Davidson was on fire again in the Sportbike class on the Aprilia RS660 taking a win and second place. Jack Bednarek made great progress throughout the weekend in the Superstock class on the Aprilia RSV4 and finished in 25th position.
Alfie was flying all weekend right from the opening session. He managed to qualify on pole by nearly 0.5 and was eager to get going in the race. He dropped back to fifth into the opening corner but soon got his head down and was fighting for the win. He worked hard over the 12 laps and got to the lead, taking another fantastic win by 0.405.
In race two he started from the front row in third, another tricky start saw him fall down to 8th into Redgate corner. Once again, he knuckled down and wanted to be at the front. He made some strong passes and was soon locked in a very close battle for the win with Zak Shelton and Harley McCabe. Zak passed Alfie into the final turn on the last lap and it was a drag to the line with Alfie just missing out by 0.01.
Jack and the Aprilia team had a lot to learn again at Donington Park, the team have a new electronics system, which hasn’t been used before in the UK. There is a lot of learning to do with how the dynamics work at each circuit on the Aprilia RSV4. We are still building up confidence on the new package and Jack is learning how to ride the Aprilia. He made huge progress once again in each session.
Unfortunately, it rained during qualifying which opened another can of worms without any wet testing. He ended up qualifying in 28th place for the only race on Sunday. Jack got a great start and made six places on the opening lap. The safety car was deployed on lap four and red flagged due to rain.
The re-start was over seven laps and declared a wet race and Jack was cautious of the conditions and pulled into the pit lane after the first warm up lap. The team opted to stay on dry tyres for the race judging the conditions but this forced Jack to start from pit lane. Jack was nervous on the opening laps just getting a feel for things but with only a 7-lap race and half the field on dry tyres and half on wets it was going to be a big ask. Despite his times really dropping in the final stages there just were not enough laps to progress through the field and he ended up in 25th place at the flag.
Alfie – “It was another brilliant weekend for myself and the IN-Competition Aprilia team at Donington Park.
I’m really happy with how it went and managed to get the first race win and narrowly missed out in race two.
We’ve got more points on the board for the Championship, that’s the main thing, and feeling confident going into the next round.
Thank you to all the team for putting a great bike out for me.”
Jack – “This weekend was tough, we made a good step with my feel on the bike in both the wet and the dry.
Qualifying was my first time on the Aprilia in the wet so I was quite nervous but in the end we found what will work next time out in those conditions.
I am looking forward to getting to Knockhill to continue working and improving. Thanks to all the team and the team sponsors.”
Ian Newton – Team Owner – “Alfie once again showed his skill and determination throughout the weekend and rode two exceptional races. He got two tough starts through no fault of his own and had to knuckle down, work hard and ride well to get through to battle for the wins. To take away another win and a very close second place we can’t complain at, he rode exceptionally well.
We made some great progress with Jack and were just so unlucky with the random weather conditions just before their race. He pulled into the pit lane and waited, making the call to stay on dry tyres. He was obviously very cautious in the opening laps but his times were dropping very quickly, we just needed an extra five laps. We’ve have come on again massively this weekend and pleased with the direction we are going with the new data and electronics on the Aprilia RSV4.”
