BSB: Tarran Mackenzie wins the final race of the weekend at Donington

Published: 05 October 2020

Tarran Mackenzie won the final race at Donington Park

Tarran Mackenzie ensured that there were three different race winners at Donington Park after getting the better of title contenders Glenn Irwin and Josh Brookes.

Mackenzie, who had been building up towards a race winning performance throughout the day, had an entertaining battle with Christian Iddon for fifth in the opening laps before setting his sights on the top four.

The McAMS Yamaha rider overtook teammate Jason O’Halloran, before a bike issue with Tommy Bridewell promoted him to third. Mackenzie dove down the inside of Brookes at the Melbourne Hairpin, before putting a move on Irwin for the lead at Coppice.

Mackenzie controlled the pace before pulling the pin on the penultimate lap. It’s Mackenzie’s third BSB victory and his second win of the season.

Irwin and Brookes completed the podium, with the latter now leading the championship heading into the final round at Brands Hatch. Brookes has a 16-point advantage over Iddon, with Irwin a further two points back in third. The VisionTrack Ducati rider was also crowned Monster Energy King of Donington after securing the biggest points haul overall this weekend.

Iddon ended race three in fourth spot, whilst Gino Rea capped off a brilliant day in fifth for Buildbase Suzuki. Lee Jackson was sixth, ahead of race one winner Andrew Irwin.

O’Halloran fought back to eighth after dropping down the order when his left brake lever guard was damaged when his bike clashed with Iddon’s. The guard was pushed upwards, causing the clutch to be pulled in – something which O’Halloran didn’t realise had happened for a few laps. With his clutch slipping, the Australian managed to push the guard back down to release it, but the damage had already been done. O’Halloran is now 19 points behind Brookes in the standings.

Luke Mossey and Joe Francis completed the top 10, with Peter Hickman and Danny Buchan finishing in 11th and 12th respectively.

Alongside Bridewell’s retirement, Hector Barbera crashed out of the race at McLeans. Meanwhile, Ryan Vickers crashed on the opening lap when he clipped another rider and went down at Redgate. Fortunately, all of the other riders managed to avoid him, and Vickers walked away without any injuries.

The final race meeting of the 2020 BSB season takes place at Brands Hatch on October 16-18, with five riders still in with a mathematical chance of the title.

BSB: Josh Brookes wins a chaotic second race at Donington Park

First published: 4 October 2020 by Josh Close

Josh Brookes has taken control of the 2020 BSB title fight after securing a commanding victory in the second race of the day at Donington Park.

The Australian stayed out of trouble in the opening few laps and took the lead away from Gino Rea on lap five. Brookes quickly pulled the pin and opened up a comfortable gap to his rivals.

Although he was being chased down by Jason O’Halloran in the closing stages, Brookes held on to secure his third victory of 2020. The VisionTrack Ducati rider now leads the championship and has an 11-point advantage over O’Halloran, who finished the race in second spot.

Tarran Mackenzie made it a McAMS Yamaha double on the podium in third spot. That’s Mackenzie’s third podium of the year.

Rea finished fourth on the Buildbase Suzuki after making a fantastic start to the race. Tommy Bridewell fought back from a difficult race one to take fifth, finishing just ahead of Christian Iddon.

Glenn Irwin’s tricky day continued after the former series leader fell back from third to seventh in the closing stages. Jack Kennedy finished eighth, with Luke Mossey and Joe Francis completing the top 10.

Storm Stacey secured his best-ever BSB result in 13th, whilst debutant Markus Reiterberger scored his first points in 14th for Global Robots BMW.

The first lap was a chaotic one, with Ryan Vickers and Andrew Irwin colliding at the Melbourne Hairpin. Seconds later Peter Hickman and Danny Buchan collided on the run up to Goddards.

Kyle Ryde retired with a bike problem whilst leading the race on lap two, before Lee Jackson and Ian Hutchinson crashed out in separate incidents on lap three. Brian McCormack also fell, whilst Bjorn Estment returned to the pits with an issue.

Whilst the gap between Brookes and O’Halloran are 11 points apart in the standings, Iddon is now 13 points behind his teammate. Glenn Irwin is now 22 points adrift in the title race.

The third and final BSB race of the weekend is due to begin at 16:30.

BSB: Andrew Irwin takes victory in race one at Donington Park

First published: 4 October 2020 by Josh Close

Andrew Irwin dominated proceedings in the opening Bennetts British Superbike race of the day at Donington Park, taking full advantage when Glenn Irwin crashed out.

Both Honda riders made a perfect start and Glenn led ahead of Andrew heading through turn one. However, disaster struck for Glenn at Goddards at the end of the opening lap when he fell out of contention.

Andrew took over at the front and managed to keep both VisionTrack Ducati riders at bay to secure his third win of the season. All three of his victories in 2020 have come at Donington Park.

Christian Iddon kept his cool to secure second spot and he now leads the championship following Glenn Irwin’s crash. Iddon has a two-point advantage over Josh Brookes, who finished race one in third spot. Glenn Irwin is now eight points adrift of Iddon.

Tarran Mackenzie bounced back from 19th on the grid to finish fourth, ahead of RAF Regular & Reserve Kawasaki rider Ryan Vickers. It’s Vickers’ best result of the year so far.

Gino Rea, Jack Kennedy and Kyle Ryde all opted to run the intermediate rear tyre and they were all rewarded. They would end the race in sixth, seventh and eighth respectively after fighting their way through the pack in the latter stages.

The Rapid Fulfillment Kawasaki duo of Danny Buchan and Lee Jackson completed the top 10, just ahead of Luke Mossey and Peter Hickman.

Jason O’Halloran struggled throughout the race and ended up down in 14th. Like Glenn Irwin, he is now eight points behind Iddon in the standings. Tommy Bridewell also endured a tough race and took the final point in 15th. Brian McCormack returned to pit lane and retired on the sixth lap.

Race two of the day is scheduled to begin at 14:15 this afternoon (October 4).

BSB: Saturday’s race called off due to heavy rain at Donington Park

First published: 3 October 2020 by Josh Close

The opening Bennetts British Superbike race of the weekend at Donington has been pushed back until Sunday due to heavy rain.

With a new schedule in place, which included the cancellation of qualifying, race one was due to begin at 12:20. However, with the rain continuing to fall and standing water appearing on the circuit, the decision was made to delay the race.

The story so far

Josh Brookes tops FP1 in the dry
Brookes masters the wet in FP2
Qualifying is cancelled

The riders reappeared on the grid just before 2pm and set off on their warmup lap. The rain had started to get heavier once more and visibility was clearly an issue. Once the riders returned to the grid several of them raised their hands to signify that it wasn’t safe to race.

“With the density of races there is no upside to forcing a situation which could be detrimental to the rest of the programme and the championship,” BSB Race Director Stuart Higgs told Eurosport after the stoppage. “It’s been a case of chasing the closing weather window all day. Luck has gone against us, but we have a contingency for tomorrow to attempt to run three races across the day so that’s our objective now.

“Grip levels seemed okay, but the visibility was just beyond the point of what is reasonable. It’s been raining on and off all night and yesterday as well. There’s is so much moisture, the whole place is saturated and the prognosis for the rest of the afternoon is more of the same. When you get to that point you just have to take stock of what you’ve got.

“It’s not the decision we wanted, I know a lot of people are stuck indoors wanting to watch some racing, but we want to put on safe racing and that’s not possible in these conditions.”

Tomorrow’s schedule has now been revealed. Race one is scheduled to begin at 11:15, with the riders taking part in a 10-minute warmup session at 09:00. Race two and three will then take place at 14:15 and 16:30 respectively.

BSB: Josh Brookes on pole for race one following qualifying cancellation

First published: 2 October 2020 by Josh Close

Josh Brookes will start the opening Bennetts British Superbike Championship race at Donington Park from pole position after an updated schedule was released this morning.

Due to the bad weather forecast this morning, with Storm Alex heading towards the circuit, qualifying sessions in all classes, excluding Junior Supersport, have been cancelled. Instead, the grid positions for the opening race in each of those classes have been decided by the combined overall times from Friday’s free practice sessions.

With only one dry practice session yesterday this means that the times from FP1 have decided the grid for the opening Superbike race of the weekend.

Brookes, who was quickest in FP1 and FP2, will line-up alongside Glenn and Andrew Irwin on the front row, with Christian Iddon, Hector Barbera and Tommy Bridewell behind them on row two.

Championship contender Jason O’Halloran will start from ninth, behind the Rapid Fulfillment Kawasaki duo of Lee Jackson and Danny Buchan. Kyle Ryde, Luke Mossey and Ryan Vickers complete row four, with Tarran Mackenzie starting down in 19th on the McAMS Yamaha.

The BSB riders will have a 15-minute warmup session this morning at 09:40, with race one scheduled to begin at 12:20 this afternoon (October 3). The races after BSB will be intended to run in the order shown below, with the conditions being under perminant review by race direction. Schedule updates will be made throughout the day for those races. Sunday’s schedule (October 4) will be confirmed by the end of today.

BSB: Josh Brookes masters the wet conditions to top FP2 at Donington

First published: 2 October 2020 by Josh Close

Josh Brookes led a Ducati one-two-three in a wet and windy FP2 session at Donington Park.

The Australian led for the majority of proceedings, with his quickest lap-time being a 1:47.378. Brookes also topped a dry FP1 session earlier on this afternoon, posting a fastest dry time of 1:29.768.

Teammate Christian Iddon was second ahead of Tommy Bridewell on the Oxford Products Racing Ducati. The three Ducati riders were the only riders to drop into the 1:47s in FP2.

Lee Jackson and Danny Buchan were their closest challengers on the Rapid Fulfillment Kawasaki machines, whilst Luke Mossey was the fastest BMW rider in sixth.

Championship leader Glenn Irwin was seventh, just ahead of his nearest title rival Jason O’Halloran. Kyle Ryde and Hector Barbera completed the top 10.

The tricky conditions caught multiple riders out this afternoon. Joe Francis was the first rider to run off the track but was able to rejoin after his off at turn one. Jack Kennedy then fell at the Foggy Esses, before a crash for Josh Owens at Craner Curves brought out the red flag with just over 10 minutes gone. Owens was taken to the medical centre.

After the restart Tarran Mackenzie (12th) crashed at Schwantz, with Andrew Irwin (11th) hitting the deck at the Foggy Esses. Ian Hutchinson (20th), standing in for Bradley Ray after his incident in FP1, crashed at Schwantz.

Brian McCormack (13th) fell at McLeans, before Gino Rea (14th) and Bjorn Estment (19th) both crashed at Goddards in the closing seconds.

Saturday’s timetable will be published following the latest, most accurate, weather forecast available tomorrow morning. Storm Alex is expected to hit the area and may cause some disruption.

If tomorrow’s qualifying session is unable to take place, free practice times will establish grid positions for the opening race of the weekend.

BSB: Josh Brookes leads Glenn Irwin in FP1 at Donington Park

First published: 2 October 2020 by Josh Close

Josh Brookes got his Bennetts British Superbike weekend off to the perfect start by topping free practice one at Donington Park.

The VisionTrack Ducati rider posted two 1:29s in the final few minutes to end the session 0.241s clear of championship leader Glenn Irwin. Brookes’ fastest lap-time in FP1 was a 1:29.768, and he was the only rider to dip into the 1:29s.