British Superbikes Donington Park Round 10

31 September - 2 October 2022

After last weekend’s shenanigans and incidents of riders coming into contact with each other at Oulton Park, it was good to get back to what BSB does best, racing. However, there were a few suspect manoeuvres that had the fans talking, one of note that we will look at later.

On the run up to this the penultimate meeting the talk was who can challenge the current championship leader Bradley Ray. Who would it be? Bridewell, O’Halloran, Jackson or Irwin.

Well as we have seen this season you can never predict what’s going to happen in this race series. Something unexpected can and usually does happen.

All year the PBM MCE Ducati team have been off the pace running middle to top third with Josh Brookes the 2020 BSB Champion and Tom Sykes the 2013 World Superbike Champion.

We know this team has class riders, so it was surprising to see the results this year from what is a strong crew that has been competitive at the very top of BSB for years.

Last weekend's BSB round 10 was where the big red machine got back on track, with "Mr Donington" Tom Sykes pulling his finger out and putting on an excellent display of how to get round the Leicestershire circuit at speed and style. 

Well he did for two races, coming first in the sprint and race two. Race three he was on lap six when Jason O’Halloran out braked himself at the Melbourne Loop resulting in the rear wheel of his machine rising up in the air and flapping around.

With no choice, O’Halloran let off the brakes and clattered into the rear of Sykes' bike which resulted in O’Halloran going down and effectively out of the championship. Sykes then had to retire from the race scuppering his plan of a hat trick of wins.

However Sykes is not in the running for the championship so he took valuable points away from the showdown contenders, all of whom were desperately trying to get to the front and drag some points back on championship leader Bradley Ray with some great racing. 

The other main contender, and now second in the championship, Glenn Irwin had some good results but is 66 points adrift after this round. Two hard fought for thirds and a fifth, which at one point saw him riding with only one foot peg after it came off.

This means that unless something dramatic happens at the final round at Brands Hatch, it looks like the consistent results that Brad Ray has posted will see him crowed 2022 champion.

Tommy Bridewell is one point behind Glen and in theory could still take the title but with only 25 points for a race win it’s a tall order and would need Ray not to finish in the points in two races.

As I've stated, something unexpected can and usually does happen, but I think on reflection Ray has done enough. It’s a shame it's not a closer run in to the final round.

Watching Bradley Ray this last weekend he looked faster to me than everyone else at most of the corners, well he was certainly approaching them faster but still looked to be having trouble with the back tyre.

He was sliding around a lot and looked in control which was great to see from the track side, and he was putting in some great lap times breaking the lap record on a few occasions. 

The final round at Brands Hatch in two weeks will see the champion crowned, and I for one won’t be surprised if it is an individual who has a passing resemblance to a leather clad over grown very fast milky bar kid!

SuperStock

One Championship was decided at Donington the very competitive SuperStock class. #74 Davey Todd riding the Milenco by Padgetts Motorcycles Honda Fireblade. He was second in the first race and put on a fantastic lights to flag race setting a new class lap record of 1:30.195 winning the second race and claiming the championship. 

Todd has had a great year from a podium at the Isle of Man TT, eleven podiums and four wins in the SuperStock, as well as wins at Scarborough. He looks like he is going to be a rider a lot of teams will want on their machines next year.

His team mate Lewis Rollo didn't have such a good meeting crashing out in dramatic style on lap 5 of the first race, if only I had been shooting in portrait mode!

The team we have been following this year, the True Heroes, had another solid meeting mixing some of the Tri-Options Ducati team members into the Supersport class as there was no round for the Ducatis.

Leon Wilton #55 and Charlie White #24 both posted personal bests of 1:38.690 for Leon and 1:38.690 for Charlie in the Supersport class.

The PBs kept coming ,with #61 Dave Sellers setting a 1:33.684 and #22 Dave Mackay a 1:34.417 in the Superstock class.

Associate True Heroes rider Harrison Mackay, competing in the British Talent Cup didn’t have a memorable round. High siding at Craners he sustained a puncture wound to the arm and a few bruises but was patched up and deemed fit to ride in race two.

Unfortunately he could only last four laps before calling it a day and he finished the championship in 14 place.

Chrissy Rouse 1995 - 2022

The weekend had started off with dark clouds and ended in bright sunshine, but there was one dark cloud that persisted throughout the week. It was announced on Thursday that after an incident in the third BSB race last Sunday that Chrissy Rouse the 2020 SuperStock Champion had succumbed to his injuries and had passed away.

A young and talented man both on and off the track taken way too young. We offer sincere condolences to Chrissy’s family, friends and team members. 

We will close this report with a few pictures of what he loved doing and my favourite, Chrissy flying at Cadwell.

Thanks to David Harbey, David Gowshall and Darren Oliver-Jones for helping out with this report, you can see more of their photos by following the links below.