A rollercoaster of an opening BSB round for Oxford Products Racing Ducati
Oxford Products Racing Ducati’s Team Manager Ian ‘Hammy’ Darbyshire reports back on the opening Bennetts British Superbike round held at Navarra last weekend.
To start we had a week of testing. In short, we found another good feeling with the Superbike and found a really impressive race pace, giving all of us confidence coming into the race weekend. Ben also had a good test on the Supersport bike. He very clearly had pace from the off being top of the sheet regularly. Although things did get a little more complicated after a crash at 156mph which put the team on the back foot. A late-night rebuild and loss of track time meant qualifying was going to be a little unknown.
Qualifying
First out was Ben on the Panigale V2. The bike went out after a short warm up and certainly not with the feeling or confidence we had before the crash. Ben found his inner dog and bit the screen on his last lap to put us P2. After such a huge crash and a bike that was built hours before the session Ben showed his class, so huge credit to him.
Christian then went out for Warm Up and instantly felt comfortable. Previous track action and good pace saw us straight through to Superpole.
Superpole
We had such good promise for Superpole. Unfortunately, Christian just didn’t have the same feeling he had on the Wednesday test, mainly down to the high track temperature. He dug deep and 10th on the grid is where we started. He clearly pushed hard as there were a few moments, but as Navarra is such a hard track to pass we knew it was going to be tough.
Supersport Race 1
Race 1 came and Ben was fired up and wanting to reward the team’s hard work from the week with a good result. Many will know the race didn’t go our way. After lots of battling and really good racing within the rest of the field we saw ourselves faced with a long lap penalty. Ben simply didn’t see his board or the race gantry. Failing to serve saw us with a ride through. Due to missing this we ended the race P2 at the flag but with the time penalty added the official finish result was P11.
Supersport Race 2
Ben’s fastest lap saw us start from P2 again. After a mega start Ben settled into what is a field full of class this year. A few laps in Ben and Stapleford clearly had the pace on the day and started to pull from the pack. Wheels to wheel, the boys swapped positions before Luke’s pace showed to be stronger. Ben looked to just settle into a rhythm and bring strong points home. But around two seconds behind, and just short of the finish line, Luke’s bike cut out meaning Ben took the win just over the line. Never the way we like to win, but this is racing, and maximum points is always the aim. But we felt for Luke as he rode faultlessly all weekend, so credit to him.
Superbike Race 1
Starting P10 on the grid here we always knew it was going to be a tall order. It’s a circuit with seven first gear corners, little room for errors, and the fastest corner on the calendar. The lights go out and Christian sets off making a good start and taking a few places, finding himself for a fair few laps fighting it out with Hickman before breaking through and settling into the race. Other than Nesbitt showing some pace behind him it was a case of bringing it home as strong as he could. P10 to P6 was actually a fantastic result which the team were very pleased with. Christian’s fastest lap however saw us starting Race 2 from 13th.
Superbike Race 2
Starting P13 was going to be a huge ask to finish at the sharp end. The lights go out and Christian gets a ‘lightning’ start. A few laps in and he’s sitting behind the front pack as seven of them breakaway from the field very quick. Front pack all hit mid race distance and the Yamahas show their strength at this circuit and start to break the pack. Christian settles and gets into his own race pace and looking really strong. With seven laps to go Haslam was in front of Christian but was looking to lose some grip, with Christian making nearly a second on him each lap. Unfortunately, we ran out of laps and Christian came home in 5th. But this from 13th felt like a top three result. Huge credit to him for never giving up. These two races showed a clear path of where the rider needs to focus, and also where the team needs to focus.
We head into Round 2 fifth in the Supersport championship, fourth in the Superbike championship, and third in the team standings.
With the winter season not only seeing huge bike development, there has also been big change with staff and structure. We are so pleased with the round, and mega proud of the team’s aptitude towards what was a really challenging week.
We left Spain ready for a couple days off but are more motivated than ever to build on the opening round and show everyone what we are capable of. Thank you to everyone for the amazing support this weekend.