Bennetts British Superbikes

After a very tough and emotional weekend at Oulton Park the Bennetts British Superbike Championship returned this weekend to Donington Park for round two.

Tom Sykes kindly offered to join the team as a development rider whilst Lewis Rollo recovers from a nasty back injury sustained at the Navarra test in April.

Sadly, it proved to be an extremely tricky weekend with technical and electrical problems hampered the team throughout the duration of the three days. Tom unfortunately, despite his best efforts was unable to complete any of the races.

Tom – “Obviously it wasn’t the outcome we were hoping for, but I know from the time I spent on the Aprilia RSV4 it has a lot of potential. We were just unlucky this weekend.

Thank you for this opportunity and I hope we will work together again in the future.”

Quattro Plant British Supersport

This year the team have welcome Irish star Lee Johnston into the Sencat Triumph by Swan Racing team, joining Freddie Barnes, who is competing in his second Supersport season.

Lee had a solid weekend despite a couple of issues during both races. He secured a 12^th and 11^th places. He managed to qualify in 9^th place for the opening Sprint race on Saturday and held his position for most of the race locked in a couple of tight battles, unfortunately he encountered a penalty of three seconds which dropped him from 9^th to 12^th.

For race two he started from 9^th again and got a good start, he had to take evasive action into the Esses and lost several places. He got his head down, made some strong moves and was able to secure 11^th place in the feature race.

Lee – “The Sencat Triumph team are doing a great job, and we just suffered a couple of issues with the brakes during the races which caused me to run on. There is still a lot more to come and I’m sure it will all click together nicely in all the future races. Thanks to all the team for all their hard work over the weekend.”

Freddie Barnes has made some huge steps from 2024. Oulton was extremely tough for him, and he really worked hard this weekend showing dedication and determination to do well. He continued to improve throughout the weekend managing to qualify in 24^th place. He got a tricky start and had to avoid a crash, dropping places. He worked hard to finish in 19^th.

He started from 23^rd place. He got boxed into turn one and dropped a long way off the pack. Once again, he knuckled down and pulled his way back to finish in 27^th.

Freddie – “This weekend we raced for Owen and Shane; everything was for them.

The Sprint race was a lot of fun which I really enjoyed. I had a terrible first lap and gave myself some work to do but made it through to a good result.

The feature race was a little bit more difficult; I had an awful first lap and lost a lot of places. However, it was a good weekend, and we learnt a lot. We have a good break now before Snetterton to re-group.

Thank you to everyone who makes it possible.”

Chris Barnes – Team Owner – “After a tragic Oulton Park it was always going to be a mixed weekend of emotions, and I take my hat off to everyone in the paddock for dealing with the situation so well. The riders this weekend raced for Shane and Owen, and we hope we did them proud.

I felt for Tom this weekend, I knew he was eager to get back to BSB and have some good races. We were plagued by a few problems, and it just lost us some vital track time. He was making some really good progress in the Sprint race but unfortunately was forced to retire. We have some work to do on the Superbike before Snetterton, and we know which direction we need to be heading now. We are very grateful to Tom for stepping in this weekend and providing us with his extensive knowledge and expertise.

In the Supersport class both Lee and Freddie did a great job this weekend. Lee gained a penalty in race one and ran on down the slip-road in race two, if it wasn’t for this, he would have secured two top ten finishes which is great at round two. We know this will continue to improve and he will be fighting for podiums soon.

Freddie always gives everything to his racing; he had a bit of bad luck on the opening laps of both races but still managed to improve his times and worked hard to get the results he got. It’s only his second year in this very competitive class.

We will continue to work on the Aprilia and Triumphs before Snetterton and will go there with more confidence and aim for some strong results there.”