British Super Bikes Test Day - Donington Park

25 March 2023

For the last few months I have been attending test days watching cars belt around Donington Park, so it makes a pleasant change to head over to the Derbyshire track to watch my first two-wheel action of the year. That pleasure was enhanced by the knowledge that this is where the new season starts and the battle lines will be about to be drawn for the 2023 BSB Championship.

The first test event had been held outside of the UK at the newly acquired by MSV Navarra Circuit in Spain. Here Kyle Ryde has topped the time sheets on last year’s Championship winning bike the OMG Yamaha R1.

With the last two season champions now on the World Super Bike circuit (Taz MacKenzie in World Super Sport and Brad Ray in World Super Bikes) the crown has no one to defend it, so it will be up for grabs for one of the 28 confirmed riders on the 15 October at Brands Hatch at the final round. 

And it does usually go to the final round what with the way the series was run with the showdown. This has been in place for some time now and is loved by some and hated by many. The showdown was put into place to stop one team or rider running away with the championship midway through the season and keep the fans returning to the track until the final round.

I, for one, liked a first past the post and not have a reset two thirds the way through the season. And that is what we have got this season.

The main season of eight rounds will see the standard points for the first 15 riders, 18-16-14-12-11-10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1.

The new Showdown rounds at Oulton and Donington the points will increase, 25-22-20-18-16-14-12-10-8-6-5-4-3-2-1.

The final round at Brands Hatch will bring in the biggest points haul, 35-30-27-24-22-20-18-16-14-12-10-8-6-4-2. 

Anyway, enough of that, the season hasn’t even started yet! Let's take a look at what was out on track on a bright Tuesday afternoon. All of the classes you will get at a race weekend were testing, with the support classes coming out first. Traditional the BSB bikes are on track three times during a test day, mid-morning, lunch and late afternoon.

That’s three sessions of just over an hour each for your £12 entry fee but when you throw in the support classes that’s not bad value, or is it? Not that long ago, to go and watch the Superbikes testing it was free of charge as it was for the other test days I’ve been to this month at Donington.

Am I complaining? Yes and no. When you used to get something for nothing and now you don’t it's going to annoy you, but on the other side of the coin what can you get for £12 these days? Two pints in a London pub if you are lucky?

However, the kick in the teeth was the weather, as it turned and it was as terrible as last year. Well not quite as bad as last year, as the racing was cancelled when the snow came in. This year it was wet, with the Superbikes not getting out on track much at all.

Only a handful turned out, and this was not great for the fans that had travelled to see the headline racers. The support racers did put on a good show, however, getting on track in numbers.

A new support class this year is the F 900 R Cup, a single bike series racing the BMW F900R. There is good prize money with a £1000 per race for the winner going down to £130 for tenth place. There are also cash prizes for the qualifying and the ‘Last Chance Qualifier’ race.

That concludes our look at the official BSB Donington test day, although it should have been called a support class test day. Not the best way to start the season, wet cold and not much on track, but it can only get better at the next test at Silverstone which by the way is £2 cheaper to get in.