After the long winter break, everyone at the British Championship could hardly wait to get back on track. As confirmation of this, on the second day of the official British superbike Tests (the so-called “BSB Test Tour”, organized directly by the organizer MSVR) on the Silverstone ‘National’ course got serious. In today’s four sessions, Glenn Irwin showed up, with Jason O’Halloran literally impregnable in terms of pace and Josh Brookes falling in the end.
Glenn Irwin in the lead
In search of redress after the disappointing end of 2020 and far from the limelight of previous meetings, the best performance was achieved by the Honda Racing UK rider with a lap time of 53.139 s. Well below the course record set by O’Halloran in 53,342 seconds last year, the Carrickfergus man did well in the third session of the day despite the low temperatures and a few raindrops, only to check Kyle Ryde’s flag in the fourth . Apart from the fact that he was the only one in the top group on the CBR 1000RR-R, given the necessary adjustment phase of his Japanese teammates Takumi Takahashi (18th) and Ryo Mizuno (19th) Glenn Irwin was tasked with setting the direction and development path for this season. Now all that remains is to see him at work over the long distance.
McAMS Yamaha strength demonstration
After dominating the opening day, ‘O’Show’ has proven to be excellent at his tire management today. Although fifth overall is two tenths away from the top, In the third session, the McAMS Yamaha man showed a sensational racing pace: 20 laps in a row on the 53 mark, using the specific Pirelli SC0 in the rear. As if that wasn’t enough, despite a short pit stop, he drove eight more laps on the same tire and set his personal best on the last available lap. With this performance, Jason O’Halloran is one step ahead of his rivals as they prepare for the new season. The same applies to his teammate Tarran Mackenzie (Photo above), Second overall only 61 thousandths of Irwin’s Fireblade and is recovering quickly after his double fall yesterday afternoon. At the moment, the 2021 spec engine is working perfectly on both YZF-R1 (yesterday O’Halloran was the only one who used it).
Ducati in the back, Brookes crashes
A little less concise than expected, in the VisionTrack PBM Ducati team they tried to work in different areas where they could not experiment in 2020 due to the COVID-19 emergency, all at the expense of a time attack. Look at the standings, Christian Iddons ninth position (top) and straight Josh Brookes’ 12. Stand out. While the 36-year-old was concentrating on the long distance again, the reigning champion had an accident when changing direction between turns 3 and 4 without serious consequences (a bruise on his little finger …). Thirteenth was Tommy Bridewell (Oxford Racing MotoRapido) on the third Panigale V4-R on the grid.
Kent the surprise, Ryde looks fine
Return to British Superbike after a time in BSB SuperStock 1000, Danny Kent seems to be back to the “good old days”. The new Buildbase Suzuki driver – and Moto3 World Champion 2015 – Finished Day 2 in an impressive third place in 53,313 secondsafter setting the fastest time in the second session. Behind them was Kyle Ryde (Rich Energy OMG Racing) on the BMW M1000RR, who led the timesheets in the first and fourth sessions. Most of the attention of Paul Curran’s structure was on him, thanks to the forced absence of the dormant Bradley Ray, whose place was taken by equestrian trainer James Ellison. In sixth place is Gino Rea (Buildbase Suzuki) ahead of the SYNETIQ BMW by TAS duo Danny Buchan and Andrew Irwin. Tenth a revived Ryan Vickers (RAF Regular & Reserve Kawasaki), just below the top 10, Xavi Forès (FHO Racing) in eleventh place. The two Ninja ZX-10R 2021 of the FS-3 Racing Team are currently lagging behind: Lee Jackson (17th) and Rory Skinner (20th), the latter was thwarted in the fourth session by a technical problem. The BSB teams and drivers will be on the Snetterton route again next week, from May 4th to 6th, for the second stage of the “BSB Test Tour”.
COMBINED TIMES
