Into 2025

This report is dedicated to the memory of Owen Jenner and Shane Richardson. We were honoured to stand with the crowd on the grid at Donington Park to remember you.

So begins our tenth season on the Bennetts British Superbike championship grid. Change of personnel over the winter as we said goodbye to Jason O’Halloran and hello to Christian Iddon, alongside Max Cook, back for a third season with us. Christian and Max are good mates and bring a strong mix of experience and youthful exuberance!

We are on the grid with the support of a new title sponsor, AJN Steelstock, and through our continued partnership with Kawasaki UK as their official superbike entry. We really couldn’t do it without their support and that of any number of trade supports. See our ‘sponsors’ panel’ at the end of this report.

The longest winter break we could remember – almost six months – ended with three days down in Spain followed by the two official tests back home. This gave the riders a decent platform going into round one at Oulton Park. Very few changes to our trusty Kawasaki ZX-10RR Ninjas. It’s a bike that does everything well, but the goal posts keep moving as manufacturers launch new models and even world superbike spec Ducati’s are available. We are really looking forward to tapping in to Christian’s huge experience but know he will take him a while to adapt after riding a Ducati for a number of years.

Round One, Oulton Park.

We all know that the Oulton Park event was marred by tragedy and it’s hard to simply focus on our own performance. As Christian was still getting to grips with his new bike, Max got off to a strong start in free practice which culminated in qualifying in fourth place for race one. Despite a crash in the closing moments of qualifying, Christian wasn’t far behind in P7. Unfortunately, the race didn’t go to plan. Max got a great start and slotted into P3 behind Ray and Ryde but suffered from a moment of over confidence as he passed Ryde into the Shell Oils hairpin and lost the front. What could have been, but at least he was ‘on it’. Christian compounded our sense of disappointment when he slid off a few laps later at Lodge, the final corner of the lap.

With the race two grid determined by race one performances, without a lap time Max was put back six places to P12 while Christian lined up P7. Max lost time at the start but got to the back of the second group, stuck behind Bridewell, finishing P12 after being pipped by our friend Rory Skinner on the run to the line. Christian led the second group home in P8, gathering important information on how his new bike works in a race.

Race three was cancelled.

Round Two, Donington Park.

Ideal conditions for our local round. The test there had gone well and we had high hopes for a strong weekend. Max is growing into an accomplished superbike rider this year and put in another strong qualifying performance to claim the final slot on row two, P6. In a qualifying session interrupted by two reg flags, Christian didn’t get a perfect lap in so would be starting from P12. The top half of the field is so fast now that if you don’t get away with the first two rows it’s pretty much race over. The challenge is compounded as it’s not easy to set a fast lap time for a better grid position in race two while battling in the pack.

Race one on Saturday and Max got away well dicing with Skinner for P6 when his bike suddenly stopped halfway around the lap at McLeans. It turned out that the engine had lost fuel pressure. 10 years, thousands of miles and hundreds of hours running – it’s never happened before; and it had to be on lap one of race one. No lap time, six place drop to P12 for race two so pretty much weekend over in terms of results. Christian got his head down having another solid race to P7 in a gap between the first and second groups. He would start the next race from P9.

Race two at Sunday lunchtime. Both safely through lap one and over the next couple of laps Max made up ground to join Christian who, still getting to grips with the finer points of his new machine, lost the front going into turn one, Redgate, and ended up sitting in the gravel. Max then got a bit stuck behind McPhee for a number of laps but once past he was closing on Bridewell but this was the shorter ‘sprint’ race over 12 laps so time ran out, P9.

Final race of the day over the full 20 lap distance. Max off P8, Christian P12. Decent start for Max but a horrible turn one as he had to take evasive action as Kent went for a gap right in front of him. Collision avoided but five places lost. At least Christian found a way through, gaining a couple of spots. Max was properly stuck getting back past Rogers and then Andrew Irwin who he eventually passed on lap 14. Closing in on Christian they crossed the line together, P9 and P10.

Not the results we’d been hoping for or expected over the first two rounds but loads of potential. Christian has more points on the board than Max but the standings at this stage really don’t reflect either of their true capabilities. We just need to have a word with the good luck fairy.

It’s getting very fast out there!

I know conditions change – it was perfect at the weekend - and there’s a new slightly softer rear tyre this year but Jason O’Halloran’s winning race time for us last season would have put him 15th in race three this time. Ray 25 seconds faster overall and Max’s best lap over half a second faster than Jason’s with an overall race time 10 seconds faster!

Maybe there’s also a Bradley Ray effect as he’s back with two years’ experience up against the fastest superbike riders in the world.

Next time.

We’ve got a one month break now to make space for the MotoGP round at Silverstone and the Isle of Man TT races. We’ll be back 20 – 22nd June at Snetterton for some very high speed action. It’s the local round for our title sponsor AJN Steelstock and they’ve asked us to do something special for them. All I’ll say is, you’ll need sunglasses if you see us.

Regards. Nigel. Team Principal.