British SuperBikes - Snetterton - Round 8

Images by Olithephoto and David Harbey

9 - 11th September 2022 

The Snetterton round of the British Superbikes 2022 championship was where Bradley Ray, the Rich Energy OMG Racing Yamaha rider, firmly announced his intention to take the title of BSB champion away from last year's victor Taz Mackenzie.

With his first ever hat trick of wins last weekend at the Norfolk track, which followed on from a first and two seconds at the previous round at Cadwell, and picking up the Snetterton Ace of Aces trophy, he is obviously a rider at the top of his game. He sits confidently at the top of the championship with a decent lead.

But hold on, there are three rounds to go and as we saw last year, the reigning champion Taz Mackenzie was sitting in third place but went on to win the championship.

With his father by his side who has three BSB Championships to his name, and loads of MotoGP experience we can see a similarity. Not forgetting that Taz also rides the very capable Yamaha.

His team mate Jason O’Halloran, who is second in the championship, can't be counted out as he has something to prove after last year, and will be fighting until the last chequered flag falls.

The final 8 showdown places have for the BSB Championship have now been decided, but as we have seen over the years, one small mistake can be devastating and swing the advantage to the chasing pack.

The final three rounds are going to epic and I for one can’t wait for the next meeting at Oulton Park where, historically, the Yamahas have done well. Let battle commence!

The British SuperBike Title Fighters 2022

Two riders who can now kick back, although I don’t think they will as it's not in their nature, are Johnny Garness who was crowned the first champion of 2022 as he took his 11th win of the season at Snetterton in the British Talent Cup, and Jack Kennedy who sealed his place in the Supersport book of legends by winning the championship for a record fourth time on the Mar-Train Racing’s Yamaha.

As we are entering the silly season where the teams are looking to consolidate or freshen with new riders, it will be interesting to see if Mr Kennedy steps up a class or two or fights for another Supersport title.

The Snetterton round will also be remembered sadly for the death of  Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. The whole event was subdued, with the winners being presented their trophies on track without the usual razzmatazz in respect to the passing of our monarch.

The True Heroes Racing Team, as you would expect from these serving and ex-armed forces personnel, pulled out all of the stops with Sublime Designs to get Dave Mackay’s tribute bike ready to race in the stock 1000s. And what a stunning bike they turned out to show their respect for the Queen.

The final part of this race report is from Daz Croydon. Daz messaged us prior to the meeting, and as we like to feature a rider's view point, we sent the word out to our spectator photographers David Harbey and Darren Olithephoto to keep an eye out for him.

Here is his race report.

Round 6 of the  Ducati Tri-Options cup race report from #20 Daz Croydon 

Driving down to this event I wasn't that optimistic, as the last time I raced there was in 2018 , my newcomer year. Friday practice and the weather was let's say inclement. I went out on a full wet set up, although the track was fairly dry but very greasy. I don't think you'd have stayed on the bike long on a dry set up so I wobbled round and tried to familiarise myself with the track.

Saturday morning for qualifying was wet again, but the first section of the track was dry and again very greasy. I chipped away but the lap times were shocking and there were plenty of riders hitting the deck in turn 6 where the track felt the worst so I found it hard to push on through that section.

10 mins or so into the session it was red flagged and I was stopped on circuit at turn 2 as there were, unbelievably, two horses running around the infield section! The session was abandoned.  I'd qualified 17th on the grid for race 1. 

Race 1 Saturday

I lined up on the grid for my usual terrible start and followed the pack into turn 1....

Surprisingly, I felt good on the back of the pack despite the lack of dry track time and made a few passes and was really enjoying the race. I made a couple of mistakes in the closing laps of the race and lost a few places but finished 19th for my best finish so far this year. 

Race 2 Sunday

I'd made a gearing change over night as I thought I was lacking a bit out of the slower 2nd gear corners, so was hoping this would give me the punch out the turn. I lined up 20th on the grid but got a bit swamped into turn 1.  The gearing change had made the difference I wanted, and I was holding on comfortably and felt I'd got the pace to be in with a battle.

Unfortunately as I arrived at turn 2 on lap 2 and went for the brakes, the revs dropped out of the bike to tick over so I had to pull to the side of the track.  The bike was still running so I re-joined, but I'd dropped 10 seconds behind. I carried on but was struggling to back shift, especially into the last turn. I made my way back up to 22nd where I stayed until the chequered flag. Disappointing, but that's racing! On to the next round!

Photographic Post Script

David Harbey - Photographer’s notes

Having got very used to being able to drive round to Coram at club meetings, I realised that my chances were slim for BSB. In the event, I was parked outside close to the memorial, so not too far away.

I walked round to the outside of Coram and on to the Senna Straight (start / finish) for the morning so the light was behind me. The Coram gate was open for a short period in the morning so I would, it seems, have been allowed to drive in there and park.

Regular readers will know that I like a good panning shot – the blurred pit wall and garages make a great backdrop to a rider at full speed. Add in a bit of rain and spray and I’m in heaven, although not too happy about putting rain covers on and off (camera, me and rucksack) as the showers came and went.

After a brief stop at Coram for some panning shots with the team hospitality making a change to the usual background, it was round to the Bombhole and Nelson. In hindsight, I was perhaps a little early in the day as the sun was still ahead of me (the rain showers had finished for the day), so a little post production lifting of shadows has been required.

For my next location I walked across the infield to Murrays where it was very busy. I found a spot among the spectators for the shot back to the corner and the riders mostly obliged in reasonably neat line-ups through the corner.

Finally, it was back to Brundle on the inside of the track. Each lap the three leaders came through more or less in line, then a dozen riders came through in 4^th ! The lines approaching and through the bend were many and various and it was a great sight and sound.

Kit used - 70-200mm zoom and 300mm fixed plus 1.7x teleconverter.

Thanks to David Harbey and Olithephoto for braving the weather and capturing the images.