British Superbikes Round 2

British Superbikes Round 2 was held at Donington Park last weekend in near-perfect race conditions. Cool and overcast in the morning with bright sunshine braking through in the afternoon. Our team of photographers were there for all three days of the meeting. This is our review of the British Superbikes Round 2 from the perspective of a spectator photographer watching from behind the wire.

Friday British Superbikes Round 2

There is a lot of wire at Donington, the safety fences have grown over the years with the latest being the Foggy Esses. This is a popular viewing spot and used to be a great location for motorsport photographers. Shooting over the top of the fence from the adjacent hill used to give you a great set of images. Not anymore, the fence has been raised. Attending the official British Superbikes practice in April, I knew this area was not going to deliver the images it used to. I chose to start my day at a location I hadn’t been to for some time.

Redgate.

Deciding to start at the inside of Redgate, where there are no fences, I took the short walk infield to this sweeping right-hand corner. As a right-hand corner Redgate is good if you are taking pictures of motorcycles. Most of the bikes have exhausts on the right with the Ducati’s having an under-seat configuration.

Consequently this means to the motorsport photographer is that when the excess fuel is ignited, you will see the flames. In previous years, I have had, in the words of a famous Kazakhstani reporter, “great success” at capturing that all-important “very nice” flame shot. Not so this year, only a few were flaming, mainly Storm Stacey as shown below.

I had the pick of the locations around Redgate as there were very few spectators on the Friday practice day. It’s one of the reasons I like to go on a Friday, the lack of spectators. Mostly it’s just photographers like me capturing a few images for their portfolio. The other spectators are mainly made up of the fans camping over the weekend, which makes getting out of Donington easy on a Friday as most are residents for the weekend.

British Superbikes Round 2 Schedule.

The practice schedule had all of the support race series out on track except the British Superbikes. I would have to wait until after lunch to get my first sighting of them over the weekend. Not a problem, the Stockers, Supersport and British Talent Cup kept me occupied and entertained. We are going to produce a separate report on the support races with riders’ races report, so I will skip past these guys for the time being.

The final practice before lunch was the sidecars. It’s good to see the three-wheelers back at BSB, and I was intrigued to see one team in particular. #16 Ben Birchall and Patrick Rosney in the HAGER RYDE Honda. Birchall and Rosney will be at the Isle of Man TT in a few weeks, so I wanted to check them out. Ben Birchall has 14 IoM TT sidecar wins to his name, all with his brother Tom as the passenger. Tom retired in 2023, Patrick Rosney will race with Ben at this year’s IoM TT. The next time I will see Birchall and Rosney will probably be from some random IoM hedge, I can’t wait. 

Foggy Esses.

After a brief chat with one of the sponsors about supporting a few of the riders in different classes, I headed for the Foggy Esses. This would be the afternoon session and the second free practice for the BSB riders. The event schedule would be more of the same, free practice with the sidecars qualifying for race one.

There are still a few good locations around the Esses for the photography enthusiasts. I generally head to the Esses in the afternoon as the sun is behind you, making your pictures pop. Some of the shots in this report are taken through the fence, which reduces the contrast, which can be fixed in post-production. If the sun is very bright, you can get reflections from the fence, which was the case over the weekend. I try to find an area with darker fencing, rust, paint, or shadows, as this reduces the fence artefacts on your image. 

Melbourne Loop Outside

As the session was coming to an end, I walked down to the outside of the Melbourne Loop. The only reason to do this was to try and capture a rear shot of a few of the bikes flaming. It’s not a bad shot, but I’m not a fan of rear-end action. However, on arrival, I realised the light was excellent, so I picked my spot and waited. 

I didn’t have to wait too long to get my shot, pleased with what I had set about getting some slow panning shots as the riders entered the corner. I wasn’t really expecting Danny Kent to low-side it, but he did; it was to be his second crash on Friday. Watching through the viewfinder, I could see the front wheel start to tuck. Time to keep the shutter pressed and shoot off a load of images.

Overall, I was happy with my pictures from Friday. Only out for two 40 minutes sessions, it doesn’t give you much time to capture the BSB riders. Crashes and red flags can reduce the time the riders are on track as well. For £16 pre-booked via the MSV Donington website, it’s not a bad way to spend a sunny Friday. Especially when you know most of your friends are sweltering in an office somewhere.

Saturday British Superbikes Round 2

Having made a good start to my Donington Park British Superbikes experience on Friday, I was looking forward to Saturday. Meeting up with the other PistonClick photographers and a media representative we planned our day shooting. When I say planned, it’s not some sort of military campaign, more a set of lose ideas and a chat about who is going where. All of these plans would be very dependent on the weather, as it usually is. 

I decided to follow the guys around to Redgate again, not to shoot as I had done this spot the previous day. The social side of these assignments is as much fun as the photography. So I was happy to chat and watch the bikes go past. Well, for a short time until my thirst for capturing the action overtook me. Just a few slow panning shots to ease me into the day.

McLeans. 

My starting location would be a bit of a gamble. McLeans can be great for capturing motorcycles, it can also be awful. Early morning is the best time for this spot up to midday. After that the sun comes round too far and starts to wash out the images. If it is overcast you can shoot all day at McLeans. I wouldn’t it would make for a boring set of repetitive images, variety is the spice of life, or so they say. For the first few sessions it was overcast and I was happy with my shots of the support racers.

Photographing the British Superbikes

When the British Superbikes came out it would be a case of shoot and move. I had plenty of the support racers from my chosen location. A few more pictures of the BSB riders, then I would try something different. Shooting from the outside of McLeans does give you a few slightly different angles. Qualifying gives you plenty of time to move. A warm up lap then a few fast laps from the riders will result in them pitting to make adjustments, time to move.

If the light is right, a great shot is along the fence line capturing one of my favourite shots at Donington. This is quite a difficult shot to get right. Getting a pin sharp panning picture is easy when you have a vehicle that is not accelerating, like the entrance to Redgate. Follow the vehicle, keeping it in the centre of the viewfinder, use a slowish shutter speed and follow the vehicle as it speeds away and everyone is a winner. 

This shot is very different as the vehicle is approaching you, at speed. It will appear slow then fast then it’s past you with a deafening roar, make sure you have ear protection, I said MAKE SURE YOU HAVE EAR PROTECTION. As I was shooting into McLeans I started to notice the first ripples of heat haze, time to move.

Coppice. 

Arriving at Coppice in time for the Supersport race I knew I was not going to able to replicate the images I had previously shot. The heat haze was now quite bad. There is not a lot you can do to mitigate rising heat rippling off the track. The only solution is to move closer, not really an option as a spectator behind the wire. The sound of engines announced the imminent arrival of the Supersport racers so I clicked off a few shots just for the hell of it. 

As the lead riders went past I switched to the following pack. The violent destruction of two machines was not great to watch. Josh Davis Motorsport rider McLaran-Wood and British Army rider Stephen Thomas were involved in the incident, both walked away from the crash. As the Marshals were retrieving the machines on the next lap another rider came off and headed towards the orange army. Thankfully they avoided the incoming motorcycle and rider bouncing through the gravel.

Esses.

With the heat increasing I was not going to get anything useful at Coppice so headed for the Esses. I was doubtful I would fair any better there but at least I would be closer to the exit at the end of the day. I was right, a few shots of the start of the race was all I and my shooting buddy David managed here. Not being able to do anything about the heat haze I settled down to watch the racing and put my camera down.

British Superbikes Round 2 Results. 

The Milwaukee King of Donington trophy was presented to a deserving Bradley Ray after a hat trick of race wins. Ray was unstoppable in the three races leading from the front for most of the time and fighting off anyone that got close. The win for race three was a milestone for the Raceways Yamaha team he rides for. Fifty BSB race wins is a great achievement and a reflection of the professionalism of Raceways Yamaha. Especially when you consider this team was put together at the last minute due to the collapse of the OMG team.

Bennetts British Superbike Championship, Donington Park, Race 1 result:

1. Bradley Ray (Raceways Yamaha)
2. Kyle Ryde (OMG Nitrous Competitions Racing Yamaha) +1.744s
3. Josh Brookes (DAO Racing Honda) +4.050s
4. Glenn Irwin (Hager PBM Ducati) +4.923s
5. Rory Skinner (Cheshire Mouldings Ducati) +5.587s
6. Leon Haslam (Moto Rapido Ducati Racing) +7.147s
7. Christian Iddon (AJN Steelstock Kawasaki) +13.218s
8. Andrew Irwin (Honda Racing UK) +20.065s
9. John McPhee (MasterMac Honda) +20.311s
10. Danny Kent (McAMS Racing Yamaha) +20.800s

Other notable achievements were DAO Racing Honda getting a first ever podium courtesy of Josh Brookes.

Rory Skinner on the Cheshire Mouldings Ducati looked great all weekend. Looking fast doesn’t replicate into podiums, lots of riders look fast, but it did this weekend for Skinner. A 5th, 4th then a 3rd in the final race was a great result for Rory Skinner on the new to him Ducati. 

Bennetts British Superbike Championship, Donington Park, Race 2 result:

1. Bradley Ray (Raceways Yamaha).
2. Kyle Ryde (OMG Nitrous Competitions Racing Yamaha) +1.110s.
3. Glenn Irwin (Hager PBM Ducati) +1.899s.
4. Rory Skinner (Cheshire Mouldings Ducati) +2.193s.
5. Leon Haslam (Moto Rapido Ducati Racing) +4.061s.
6. Josh Brookes (DAO Racing Honda) +4.272s.
7. Andrew Irwin (Honda Racing UK) +6.435s.
8. Tommy Bridewell (Honda Racing UK) +7.204s.
9. Max Cook (AJN Steelstock Kawasaki) +7.615s.
10. John McPhee (MasterMac Honda) +9.317s.

Glenn Irwin and Kyle Ryde made up the rest of the podium places. Glenn Irwin especially took the fight to Ray but couldn’t do anything about the dominant Raceways Yamaha man.

Bennetts British Superbike Championship, Donington Park, Race 3 result:

1. Bradley Ray (Raceways Yamaha).
2. Glenn Irwin (Hager PBM Ducati) +0.396s.
3. Rory Skinner (Cheshire Mouldings Ducati) +2.750s.
4. Leon Haslam (Moto Rapido Ducati Racing) +3.667s.
5. Kyle Ryde (OMG Nitrous Competitions Racing Yamaha) +9.407s.
6. Josh Brookes (DAO Racing Honda) +12.465s.
7. Tommy Bridewell (Honda Racing UK) +13.065s.
8. Danny Kent (McAMS Racing Yamaha) +13.840s.
9. Christian Iddon (AJN Steelstock Kawasaki) +14.681s.
10. Max Cook (AJN Steelstock Kawasaki) +15.038s

Photographic Post Script

Two of us used the same camera equipment. The Nikon D500 combined with the Nikon 200-400mm f4 G VR II AF-S ED, which is an excellent motorsports setup. The D500 is a crop sensor camera, giving you a “magnification“ factor of 1.5, so you get plenty of reach to fill the frame. If that is not enough reach, throw in a Nikon 1.4 teleconverter, which works very well with the 200-400mm f4.

David uses the Nikon D850 and traveled light using the 300mm PF f4 lens. He also used the Nikon 1.7 teleconverter. The next British Superbikes round is at Snetterton 22-24 June. As always the PistonClick team will be at the Norfolk circuit to bring you the best pictures from the spectator side of the fence.

Bennetts British Superbike Championship standings:

1. Bradley Ray (Raceways Yamaha) 86.
2. Glenn Irwin (Hager PBM Ducati) 74.
3. Kyle Ryde (OMG Nitrous Competitions Racing Yamaha) 66.
4. Leon Haslam (Moto Rapido Ducati Racing) 65.
5. Rory Skinner (Cheshire Mouldings Ducati) 47.
6. Josh Brookes (DAO Racing Honda) 44.
7. Danny Kent (McAMS Racing Yamaha) 35.
8. Tommy Bridewell (Honda Racing UK) 33.
9. Christian Iddon (AJN Steelstock Kawasaki) 24.
10. Storm Stacey (Bathams AJN Racing BMW) 23.

Shane Richardson and Owen Jenner.

To end this report, it would only be right to remember the fallen riders from the previous round. Shane Richardson and Owen Jenner, who tragically lost their lives on the first lap of the British Superbike race at Oulton Park. The whole of the British Superbike community came together for a minute’s silence at Donington. They will forever remain in our memories, forever young. Shane Richardson and Owen Jenner, rest in peace.

Thanks to RPW, Mick Pringle, Jak Walker and David Harbey Photography for the images used in this report. You can find out more about these motorsport photographers from the links below.

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Our previous British Superbike reports 2018 – 2025 can be found here: