British Superbikes Round 3 Overview - Sunday 19 May 2024

Donington Park - Imagery by RPW Photography

Photographing the British Superbikes is an event that I look forward to as it’s not only a great race series, it’s a great event overall. The large crowds, packed support series and village atmosphere of the paddock adds to the experience, which for me is a good one.

It’s not just me, the rest of the Pistonclick team eagerly await the next round. Even the die hard four wheel aficionados grudgingly admit it’s something to look forward to!

What makes the team so enthusiastic about a British Superbikes round? One aspect of this event is the stone cold guarantee that as a spectator photographer, which we all are, you are going to capture great images.

Motorcycle racing is one motorsport that the machines will react totally differently to our four wheel friends when out on track.

Front wheel in the air, back wheel in the air, rider’s elbow scraping along the track, not to mention extremely close racing where a small error can have catastrophic results, makes BSB exciting to watch.

That’s not to say that other forms of motorsports are boring, far from it, they are just different. But as a photographer you just don’t get the variety of shots that you can capture in a short space of time like you can at BSB.

With seven different championships contested at each event you are not short of action, there are the odd occasions that wild card riders are added to the mix. Last weekend #61 Can Öncü who rides in the World Super Sport Championships took on the British Super Sport Championship contenders.

Winning the first race he showed his world class credentials, but #96 Tom Booth-Amos showed him the quality of our domestic riders by coming from third on the grid to win the second race. Irish motorcycle road racing legend Jeremy McWilliams appears to be mentoring Tom Booth-Amos. It’s great to see the wealth of knowledge McWilliams has being passed to the next generation of racers.

The quality of riders and teams is evident in all of the classes, the entry level Talent Cup has had five different winners in five rounds!

Quality riders who I look out for that are not in the premier class (but should be IMO) are #74 Davy Todd in the Superstock, #47 Richard Cooper in the Sportbike, #1 Ben Currie and #4 Jack Kennedy in the Supersport championship. 

In the British Superbikes we have already seen some close racing, this is backed up by having five different motorcycle manufacturers in the top eight of the rider standings. As the season progresses, each of the manufacturers will have different advantages at the very varied tracks used around the UK in this race series. 

Last time out #2 Glenn Irwin on the Ducati PBM Panigale V4R dominated with a triple-win at Oulton Park. He was chased by Christian Iddon also on a Ducati, who stepped on to the podium for the first time in a long time at Oulton Park.

A high-side in the first race at Donington’s Old Hairpin put paid to his first race. Iddon was classed as fit to race for the following two starts but the wind had been knocked out of his sails and he didn’t challenge the leaders like he did at Oulton.

The rounds at Donington has favoured the Yamahas in recent years, with six wins from six starts featuring two teams, LAMI OMG Racing Yamaha and McAMS Yamaha.

It looked like history was going to repeat itself, with #77 Kyle Ryde on the OMG GRILLA Yamaha Racing R1 taking the win in the first race.

However, the next best Yamaha was #52 Danny Kent on the McAMS Racing R1 in fourth place. Danny managed to get on the podium in the last race, taking third.

The weekend’s racing was very different to previous years, with a mix of the top manufactures taking the top spot in the three races. This bodes well for the season as the racing was very close with no manufacturer or team dominating the racing, unlike previous years. 

Stepping down the order and we saw Leon Haslam, the 2018 BSB champion on the BMW M1000RR picking up two podiums over the weekend with the ROKiT Haslam Racing BMW Motorrad team.

Tommy Bridewell went one better with three podiums on the Honda CBR 1000RR-R Fireblade SP. It’s been a while since Honda have had a competitive bike able to challenge for the BSB title. Is this the year that Bridewell can emulate Ryuichi Kiyonari and Alex Lowes and bring the title back to Honda?

It was #22 Jason O’Halloran who completed the eclectic mix of 5 different manufactures taking trophies at Donington by putting the Kawasaki ZX-10RR on the top spot in the final race.

And what a race that was! O’Halloran was back to his best but it was Bridewell, Irwin and Kent who let O’Halloran get away on the final lap as they scrapped for the final two podium places.

So if you are a spectator photographer and want to add to your portfolio I can recommend the British Super Bikes as a must-do event. The PistonClick Circuit guides will help you find the best locations to take photographs at all of the UK tracks that BSB compete at, so what are you waiting for? Get out there and start snapping!

All of the photographs in this report were taken on Sunday the 19 May 2024 by RPW Photography. The images are from behind the safety wire and areas that the general public have access to including the Sunday pit walk.

Previous British Super Bike Reports