Round Ten. Back to Donington Park. Leicestershire.

Our home circuit. Scene of Max scoring podium finishes in all three races at round two, so hopes were high. Joe is now well up to speed in his first superbike season and really keen to end his year on a high after a difficult time at Assen.

For early October, it was looking like we were going to get a a warm sunny weekend. Certainly, an improvement after the changeable weather we suffered at Assen last time out.

There’s always a big crowd at Donington enjoying the excellent viewing opportunities either around the high-speed undulations and sweeping curves which form the first half of the lap or the stop-start cark park section around the Melbourne Loop. The dual characteristics of the lap make it a challenge for the engineers to get the bike balanced for a fast lap, but the riders love it.

Free practice testing

An hour without competitive pressure just getting up to speed and trying a few minor set up changes. Our bimota KB998 Riminis need very little adjustment between circuits as the chassis base settings offer a wide working range. Basically, the riders can just concentrate on what they’re doing and work with their engineers to fine tune the feel of the bike to suit their preferences.

Max managed 21 laps starting on used tyres with a switch on to a new set of Pirelli slicks with a few minutes to go. P4, just over half a second off the ultimate pace. Joe probably had his big Assen crashes in the back of his mind and took a bit longer to get going. Same tyre strategy as Max and 22 laps run with a best time only 0.6 from Max’s best.

Joe’s afternoon session was curtailed by a clutch issue. Easy fix but frustrating to lose the laps available through the half hour session. Max had better luck and ended the session P4 after 11 laps and just 0.4 from Scott Redding’s fastest time.

Pre-qualifying. Max P3 Joe P13.

First competitive runs of the weekend to determine the fastest 12 lap times which would see the riders through to Q2. The rest would run in Q1 chasing a top three time to allow them to progress to the final stage of qualifying.

Max waited until halfway through the 20 minute session before he rolled out of the garage on his new tyres. His first flying lap was good enough for P3. His next two laps were fractionally slower, so he came back in to park up in the garage satisfied he’d done more than enough to progress to Q2. Joe had a bit more of a job on his hands. Like Max, his fastest lap was his first flyer and his time slotted in around P10. Joe stayed out completing 12 laps to make up for the lost track time the day before. With such a close spread of times, it was frustrating that Glenn Irwin on his Ducati pipped Joe by 0.049, pushing him back to P13 and the Q1 group. However, the extra qualifying run would be a good opportunity for some more laps under competitive pressure.

Qualifying. Max P5 Joe P11.

Q1. As expected, Joe put up a strong performance for P2, posting his fastest time of the weekend so far. Just behind O’Halloran and just in front of Stacey. All three through to Q2.

Max went out for a couple of laps on worn tyres while Joe started Q2 with the front tyre from Q1 and a new rear – a concession to give the three promoted riders more equal tyre performance. The usual pattern of ‘best lap is the first flying lap’ when the tyres are at their best is often broken in qualifying as the riders read their signal boards and dig really deep if they think they should be further up. To prove the point, Joe made his fastest lap on the seventh of eight – P11.

After a couple of laps, Max came in for his new tyres and went back out when the track was quieter mid-session. Five laps run and just like Joe, Max had a final push in the dying minutes of the session. P5, 0.2 from Ray in P2 while Ryde put 0.5 on the field, such is his superiority.

Feature race one. Max P5   Joe P9

After a busy lap one dicing with Skinner, Max settled into his grid P5 position and spent the whole race there. He had the best seat in the house watching the intense battle for the lead unfolding right in front of him. As the race wore on, Redding dropped back but not to the extent that Max could pass him. Eventually, Ryde broke away at the front to score yet another win. No podium this time but good to see Max right there in the leading group.

Joe had a far busier race. After a hectic first few laps, the scene was set for a classic BSB mid-field battle involving Joe, Kent, Stacey, Iddon and Jackson. All sorts of moves and small mistakes shuffled their order until Kent managed to make a break and move clear of the group. Joe and Stacey were inseparable for the final three laps with Stacey just getting the verdict to better Joe by half a second at the line. A bit frustrated to finish P9 but good for Joe to get a hard race under his belt.

Lots of data to work on for Sunday’s races in the hope of finding any small advantage.

Sprint race. Max P5 Joe P6.

Beautiful early autumn sunshine and chilly air on Sunday morning. Perfect for grip levels and engine performance in the heavy air. 10 minutes warm up to check over any overnight changes and wake up the riders. Max was particularly happy with his bike and set second fastest time. Joe was right there too, within a second of the fastest time.

12 laps, full on. Max P5 on the grid, Joe a bit further back at P10. Hectic first lap. Haslam passing Max into Foggy Esses and then Skinner dive bombed him at the Melbourne Loop pushing him back to P7. But yards later another Skinner dive bomb under Haslam into the last corner, Goddards, went wrong and he skittled both of them out. Max had to take avoiding action and emerged P8. Joe saw it all unfold and sneaked through to P5! Two safety car laps followed while Haslam was attended to.

A visor tear-off which didn’t properly tear off hampered Max at the restart, so he really had to get his head down over the remaining nine laps. By lap seven he’d caught and passed Joe for P5 and set about closing on Ray who was over a second further up the road.  Setting his fastest lap – dropping into the 1.26 bracket - with two to go he got within half a second of Ray but ran out of laps. Encouraging pace though.

After avoiding the first lap dramas, Joe made a decent safety car restart and rode hard keeping the leaders well in sight and with the exception of a recovering Max passing, he was well clear of the second group. Helpful to have a few laps behind his teammate to study points on his way to a well earned P6.

Feature race two. Max P2 Joe P6

Another 20 laps to finish off the weekend. Strong sprint lap times placed Max in the middle of the front row, P2, and Joe just behind on P6.

Boom! Max got the hole shot and headed the field down Craner Curves, immediately opening up a few bike lengths lead over Redding and the usual suspects – Ryde, Ray and Vickers. While that was going on, Joe battled Iddon to retain P6 and was hanging on to the leaders, just behind Ray.

Redding was running two or three tenths behind Max but significantly they were over a second ahead of Ryde at one point. After five laps leading the race, Redding got through while Ryde closed in to within 0.6 of Max. All three of them setting a blistering pace. Lap seven and Skinner passed Joe who was busy having another strong race. Two laps later and Ryde was 0.2 behind Max – and then he wasn’t there! For the first time in goodness knows how long, Ryde suffered a technical issue and had to retire from the race. That took the pressure off Max, a bit, and promoted Joe back up to P6.

Now Vickers was next up, running a second behind Max with 11 laps to go. Redding 1.2 clear. The three of them really were giving it everything. Vickers got to within a quarter of a second on lap 13 but then the gap stabilised before the tyres started going off. Very gradually Max edged clear. Riding qualifying laps, he increased the gap to around a second over Vickers as they started the final lap with Redding now just over two seconds further up the road.

Joe never gave up and stuck to within a couple of seconds of Skinner and was over seven seconds ahead of Kent. Another strong ride.

The race ended half a lap early as the red flag came out due to Glenn Irwin crashing heavily at Starkey’s Bridge. Max was relieved to finish as runner up after a difficult few rounds recovering from crash injuries. Joe always wants more but delivered his best weekend of the season so far at a circuit that all the riders know inside out.

A really positive way to finish the weekend.

Championship standings

Max is still P6 in the rider standings but has closed to within 14 points of Haslam who had an unlucky weekend after being taken out and then suffering a technical DNF. Joe has jumped four places to P10 and is just 11 points behind Kent in P8. Extra points are available at Brands to keep things interesting – 35 for a win. So, let’s see if Max and Joe can finish that bit higher up the standings.

On the teams’ front, our AJN Steelstock bimota squad sits comfortably P5, 29 points behind Honda.

Next time

Suddenly, we’re heading to the final round of the season. Let’s hope the fine autumn weather hangs on as there’s no better place to go racing on a sunny day than Brands Hatch. Kyle and Scott battling it out for top championship honours should be exciting. We’ll be there to keep them honest, flying the bimota flag.

Hope to see you there.

Regards, Nigel Team Principal.