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Danny Kent took a top-10 finish at Donington Park in the penultimate round of the Bennetts British Superbike Championship, despite battling illness, while his teammate in the Buildbase Suzuki garage for the weekend, Charlie Nesbitt, took point-scoring results on his superbike debut.
Under the weather, Kent’s weekend got off to a steady start, with the conditions also hampering setup time; Kent’s previous visits to Donington Park in the superbike class had both ended in injury, his only previous experience at the circuit coming on 125 and superstock machines.
He qualified 19th and finished the sprint race in 17th, but by making small changes as the weekend progressed he improved to finish 14th in race two, before a strong showing in race three saw him running inside the top-six, though he slipped to ninth at the chequered flag.
Charlie Nesbitt was making his debut in the Bennetts British Superbike Championship, standing in for the injured Christian Iddon, who suffered a concussion and broken hand at Oulton Park.
The National Superstock race-winner progressed steadily over the weekend, and on Saturday he completed his first race aboard a superbike in 19th, after earlier taking a podium finish the Superstock race on his VisionTrack Suzuki. Today the youngster really demonstrated his talent, and after a stall on the grid saw him start race two from the back of the field, he was still able to come through to finish inside the points in 13th.
He completed a solid debut with 13th in the final race.
Danny Kent, “The weekend started off quite difficult for me; the weather meant we didn’t get much dry track time and I’ve only done one round of superstock there, so we had a bit of work to do. I was also unwell all weekend and had no energy, so it was a bit of a struggle. But we made small improvements as we went and in the final race we were quite strong and able to run inside the top 10, which was a lot better, but honestly I was just happy to finish all three races this weekend.”
Charlie Nesbitt, “I’m happy with how the weekend went. We just chipped away in every session and it was still a big learning curve, but I really enjoyed it. There are things I need to work on to race a superbike, and it’s a class of fine margins which all make a big difference at this level. But overall I’m happy with how the weekend went, happy with my lap time and happy to score some championship points. I’m just can’t thank the team enough for the opportunity. Obviously I hope Christian’s recovered and he can finish the season at Brands, and we’ll focus on ending the year strongly on the superstock bike.”
Race one result: 1. Tom Sykes, 2. Jason O’Halloran, 3. Peter Hickman, 17. Danny Kent, 19. Charlie Nesbitt
Race two result: 1. Tom Sykes, 2. Bradley Ray, 3. Glenn Irwin, 13. Charlie Nesbitt, 14. Danny Kent
Race three result: 1. Bradley Ray, 2. Andrew Irwin, 3. Glenn Irwin, 9. Danny Kent, 13. Charlie Nesbitt
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