Round 2 of the British Sportbike Championship took us to Donington Park, a circuit I had been really looking forward to. It’s one of my preferred tracks on the calendar and somewhere I know well, so I was excited to get out there and see what we could do.
Test day was a bit slow-moving for us as we worked hard to find a good base setup for the circuit. Because I know Donington so well, I had a clear idea of how I wanted the bike to feel, but we struggled to get it exactly where we needed it to be.
The team kept pushing in the right direction and we made changes throughout the day, but it was clear we still had work to do to get the bike feeling comfortable and confidence-inspiring around such a fast and flowing circuit.
We went straight into qualifying looking to make the most of the 25-minute session. The plan was to push hard and try to get behind some of the quicker riders to pick up a tow, which can make a big difference around Donington.
I gave it everything I had, but we were still chasing that perfect feeling with the bike. By the end of the session, we finished P27, which wasn’t quite where we wanted to be, but we knew there was more to come in the races.
Starting from the centre of row nine for race one, I knew I had to get my head down straight away and try to make progress.
From start to finish, I was locked in a proper battle with Josh Proudfoot. We pushed each other hard throughout the race, swapping pressure and keeping the pace up all the way to the flag. In the end, I lost out by just one tenth of a second, crossing the line in 24th place.
It was frustrating to miss out by such a small margin, but the race gave me plenty to take away and showed that we had the fight and pace to keep moving forward.
For race two, I started one place further back on the grid, but my focus was on getting away well and setting my sights on the group ahead. I wanted to tag onto the back of them early and try to move forward from there.
The race started well and I made good progress, working my way up to 20th. I was feeling strong and beginning to close in, but unfortunately I started to suffer with cramp in my leg. This made it difficult to get down the gearbox properly and affected my rhythm in the later stages of the race.
As a result, I eventually crossed the line in 23rd place. It was disappointing, especially after making good progress early on, but sometimes racing throws these curveballs at you.
Overall, I can come away from Donington knowing I fought as hard as I could all weekend. It wasn’t the easiest round and we had a couple of challenges thrown our way, but we kept working, kept improving and came away with more experience under our belts.
There are positives to take, lessons to learn and plenty to build on as we head towards Round 3 in a few weeks’ time.
A huge thank you to the Whitney Motorsport Racing team for their continued support and hard work throughout the weekend. We keep pushing.