British Superbike test days have grown in popularity over the last few years. Once the realm of a few hundred diehard fans, these midweek shake downs are now part of the BSB fan racing calendar. Attracting decent-sized crowds, not race day numbers but enough for MSV to charge £15 at the gate. Tickets for the BSB Test Day Donington Park 2025 were a few quid cheaper pre-booked online, and for that, you get three Superbike sessions to watch. 

But what will you be watching? Hopefully, a full day of Superbikes and the support classes going hell for leather around the track trying to set the fastest time of the day. The reality at this time of the year is somewhat different. 

First, the weather. A few years ago, it snowed at the BSB Test Day Donington Park. Only a few riders went out, and we, the PistonClick team, sat around in the café chatting amongst ourselves. Driving to Donington on a cold Bank Holiday Saturday, the rain started to fall. I seriously thought about turning round and heading home. A cold, wet track and high-performance motorcycles don’t mix well. As a photographer, I wanted to capture the bikes in all of their glory. 

I was not relishing watching blot upright Superbikes tippy-toeing around the track trying not to crash. Or more likely, not even getting out of the garage. A quick check of my favourite weather app while parked at the entrance to Donington, and there looked to be better weather later in the day. I decided to head in and get set up.

As I walked to the far end of the circuit to start my day of motorsports photography, I considered the teams that would be racing in the BSB Championship this year. If you are up to speed on the Championship, you will know there have been a lot of rider and team movements. 

OMG Nitrous Competitions Racing

The big news was that the OMG team were due to run three riders this year in defence of their 2024 Championship title. Then the shock news that the team had collapsed as a result of commercial circumstances, basically the loss of their main sponsor. Alan Gardner stated that the team were in good health financially but needed a title sponsor to cover the day-to-day running costs.

That sponsor was found in a last-minute deal with Nitrous Competitions. The OMG Nitrous Competitions Racing team was formed but with only one rider. BSB 2024 Champion Kyle Ryde would get to defend his title and race with the #1 plate. But where did that leave the other two riders?

Raceways Yamaha

Bradley Ray, the 2022 British Superbike Championship rider, had planned to ride alongside Ryde in the OMG team after leaving the Motoxracing Yamaha World Superbike team. Steve Rodgers, who had retired from a very successful period of BSB team ownership, took up the gauntlet of riderless Ray. Rodgers won the 2021 title with Tarran Mackenzie in his official Yamaha UK-backed McAMS Yamaha team. Forming the Raceways Yamaha team with support from Yamaha UK, Ray will race with his old number 28 on the Yamaha R1.

Joe Talbot

Joe Talbot the third rider in the original 2025 OMG team was rumoured to be riding a Honda in British Supersport. Talbot did appear at the Donington test in the Supersport class. Alan Gardner, the owner of OMG Racing, had lent him a Honda Supersport bike. However, getting a package together for Talbot to go racing in time for the Donington test was proving difficult. It was announced on the 26 April Joe will join Binch Racing on the Ducati V2 in the British Supersport Championship.

DAO Racing

Lee Jackson and Josh Brookes joined DAO Racing for the 2025 BSB season riding the CBR1000RR-R Fireblade. Jackson was very competitive on last years Honda Fireblade with MasterMac so it should be an easy transition for the fastest plumber in Lincolnshire.

Bathams AJN Racing

Storm Stacey will ride the Bathams AJN Racing BMW M 1000 RR. Team owner Michael Rutter with his crew chief Ray Stringer will be watching the progress of top hat wearing Storm Stacey. Stacey has huge potential so this could be a career defining season for him.

TAS Racing Cheshire Mouldings

Rory Skinner will remain with TAS Racing Cheshire Mouldings. In a change of direction the team will be running the Ducati Panigale V4R for the 2025 Season.

AJN Steelstock Kawasaki

Christian Iddon replaced Jason O’Halloran and joined #30 Max Cook riding for AJN Steelstock Kawasaki. Previously Kawasaki FS-3 Racing and Kawasaki UK. Max performed well last year on the big green AJN Steelstock Ninja ZX-10RR. With Christian alongside him this is going to be a strong team.

MasterMac Honda

John McPhee joined MasterMac Honda alongside last year rider Charlie Nesbitt. McPhee spent 10 years in Moto3 with 4 Grand Prix victories to his name. Moving to WorldSSP for the last two years riding a Triumph Street Triple RS 765 for the WRP-RT Motorsport by SKM-Triumph. This will be McPhee’s first taste of British Super Bikes and alongside Nesbitt on the CBR1000RR-R Fireblade this is a team to watch.

Moto Rapido Racing

Leon Haslam, the 2018 BSB Champion is now riding for Moto Rapido Racing. Returning to a Ducati Haslam hopes to replicate his first BSB win, which was on a Ducati back in 2004. Team Owner Steve Moore and Leon Haslem have be working together to put a competitive package on track for the 2025 season and challenge for the British SuperBike title. It looks like this partnership is working well. Haslam was second fastest during testing.

McAMS Racing Yamaha

Danny Kent and the McAMS Racing Yamaha R1 were a half second off the top spot at the end of testing. The 2015 Moto3 World champion claimed his first win with the team at the Brands Hatch season finale last year, ending the season on a high and claiming fourth place in the overall standings.

Honda Racing UK

Staying with Honda and Team Manager, Havier Beltran Tommy Bridewell will return to ride the Honda Fireblade alongside Andrew Irwin. One point was the difference between winning and losing the Championship last year for Bridewell. He wasn’t on the pace at Donington so there is work to do in the Honda garage.

Hager PBM Ducati

The fastest man all weekend and another staying with his team from last year. Topping the timing sheets Glenn Irwin posted the fastest British Superbike lap at the bank holiday weekend test days. Irwin on the Hager PBM Ducati followed up on the Friday lap with an event quicker one on Saturday. At 0.007s it wasn’t much more but the track did start wet on Saturday drying throughout the day.

That covers the main team and rider news for the start of the season. I will now come back on topic. The second issue with test days is not all of the teams turn up. 

8TEN Racing

One notable absentee from the BSB Test Day Donington Park was the new 8TEN Racing team. Using the Isle of Man TT start numbers of Davey Tood and Peter Hickman 8TEN announced the Superbikes were not ready for last weekends test. Odd as the are backed by BMW Motorrad Motorsport. However, the team was formed as a last minute deal after Team owner Fay Ho of FHO racing parted ways with the riders. Todd did take to the track on a 1000cc stocker.

BSB Donington Park Test Day Results

1. Glenn Irwin Hager PBM Ducati 1m:27.015s
2. Leon Haslam Moto Rapido Ducati Racing +0.320s
3. Kyle Ryde OMG Nitrous Competitions Racing Yamaha +0.342s
4. Danny Kent McAMS Racing Yamaha +0.512s
5. Bradley Ray Raceways Yamaha +0.587s
6. Josh Brookes DAO Racing Honda +0.836s
7. Max Cook AJN Steelstock Kawasaki +0.937s
8. Andrew Irwin Honda Racing UK +1.195s
9. Scott Swann Send My Bag Racing by IWR Honda +1.310s
10. Christian Iddon AJN Steelstock Kawasaki +1.352s

Thanks to RPW Photography for the images used in this report. We will be at Oulton Park for the final BSB test day and will publish a report here soon.

All of our previous BSB reports can be found here.