As a team, the PistonClick photographers enjoy following a few motorcycle racers throughout the season. In this BSB Snetterton and Support Races report, we’ll focus on #61 Harrison Mackay, #23 Luke Hedger, and #79 Harley McCabe.

Harrison Mackay is currently racing and performing well in the R&G British Talent Cup. Luke Hedger is competing in the British Superbikes, while Harley McCabe is participating in the Pirelli National Sportbike Championship.

#61 Harrison Mackay – R&G British Talent Cup

Let’s start with Harrison, who is racing in the British Talent Cup. The BTC is a pathway race series for 14-17-year-olds who race at the British Superbike rounds and the MotoGP at Silverstone. 

“I was really happy with how Friday went. My lap times were coming down consistently in Free Practice and the bike felt great, and I finished the day 3rd overall. Qualifying was really, really hot but that didn’t seem to affect the bike at all and my lap times continued to drop. I qualified 4th for Race 1, smashing my PB from last year in the process.

Race 1

I made a good start in Race 1 and settled into 3rd behind Filip and Ethan. It wasn’t necessarily an exciting race as I wasn’t directly battling with the lads out in front, who were putting in super quick lap times. Rather, it was more a case of following closely and being ready to take advantage should something happen. And fortunately for me, something did happen! Filip crashed out on lap 5, followed by Ethan on lap 7, promoting me to 1st. From there I was able to dictate the pace and ride my own race, and took the win by over 4 seconds.

About a hour after crossing the line and taking the win, we found out from Race Control that Jack and I had been disqualified on a technical infringement. Filip and Ethan weren’t disqualified because they’d crashed out. The “illegal modification” wasn’t performance enhancing and didn’t improved the performance whatsoever, but the rules are the rules.

For me though, that was still a race win and it’ll always go down as a race win, which is what a lot of people said to me after the news surfaced. Understandably, Saturday night was a bit negative, but we pushed through it and the team worked hard to rectify the bikes so that everyone could race on Sunday”.

Race 2

Lee Jackson, giving Harrison some info on wind and track conditions before the start of race two. Harrison checking on Jack, “elbows out lets do this!”

“Because of disqualification, Jack and I had to start at the back of the grid for Race 2. But after making a lightning start, I was able to quickly move through the field and ended up battling for a podium position. I eventually crossed the line in P5, making up 19 places overall, so I was super, super happy with that and definitely felt as though I’d proved a point after the accusations about cheating etc.

Overall a strange and somewhat challenging weekend, but now we look forward to Round 4 at Brands Hatch in a few weeks”.

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#23 Luke Hedger – Bennetts British Superbike Championship with Pirelli

“As I’d hoped, we were able to carry the pace we found at Donington into Snetterton and by the end of Free Practice 2 I’d already smashed my personal best lap time, setting a new one of 1:49.1 — I’m definitely feeling much more at home on the Honda now.

Q1 on Saturday went OK but I just wasn’t able to pull everything together and match those laps from FP2, ultimately qualifying in 18th position for Race 1. Having said that, I was only eight tenths off Storm’s lap time that got him through to Q2, so the speed was in the bike, I just needed to unlock it.

Race 1

Making a good start in Race 1 I settled straight into the battle for 15th until I had mechanical issues. This resulted in a black and orange flag being shown and I had to retire the bike. This was gutting as I definitely felt as though the points were there for the taking. 

Race 2

Thankfully, the team were able to rectify the issues with the bike in time for Race 2 on Sunday. Building on my good start in Race 1, I got away even better this time and spent the entire race fighting with those running 12th to 15th. I was stoked to bring the bike home 15th and claim more points for myself and the team.

Race 3

Race 3 didn’t quite go to plan as I didn’t dig deep enough at the start and lost ground to that midfield group rather than going with them, ultimately losing out to Jaimie who put up a really good battle.

Overall though, I’m happy with the progress we’ve made this weekend as we could have had a double-points haul had it not been for the mechanical issues in Race 1. I’m looking forward to Knockhill now where I hope to build on the last two good rounds and anticipate another good weekend”.

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#79 Harley Mcabe – Pirelli National Sportbike Championship

“It was nice to be back racing with Rapid Honda at Snetterton after what’s been a tough few weeks since loosing Owen at Oulton Park. However, things didn’t exactly go to plan from the off. Paul, my crew chief, was rushed to hospital with appendicitis, meaning we had no laptop and no data analysis for the weekend. The team had to rely on just my feedback, and Rob and Matt’s ability to translate that into positive changes with the bike.

Both Free Practice sessions were simply about me learning the track on the Aprilia as it’s a massive change from the moto3 bikes I’m used to riding in the British Talent Cup. I did improve my times in both sessions though, which is a big positive and all the team is asking from me at the moment.

Although I felt comfortable on the bike in qualifying, I just couldn’t get a lap together as I didn’t seem to have the same power as the other bikes, especially down the Bentley straight. I ended up 27th, which isn’t too bad considering it was only my second round on the bike. After qualifying, we took the bike to the dyno and found the engine was down on power, so we’re hoping to fit a new one for Knockhill.

Race 1

During the race I continued to chip away at my lap times, but didn’t have enough in the bike to really get stuck in and battle with those around me as I’d have liked. Overall, the results aren’t representative of what I know I can do, but the team have been amazing and they’ve given me everything I’ve asked for.

We’ll dust ourselves off (and there was a lot of dust at Snetterton!) and go again at Knockhill. Every track is a new challenge and a massive learning curve for me in my maiden season in National Sportbike, but I’m loving being on the bike and working with the team. I wish Paul a speedy recovery and hope he’ll be back with us in Scotland”.

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Thanks to the riders for the comments in this PistonClick BSB Snetterton and Support Races report. Also thanks to Mic Pringle and RPW Photography for contributed to this report. You can find out more about Mic here:

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Previous PistonClick BSB 2025 reports.

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