VisionTrack Ducati Head For Donington In Good Shape
The penultimate round of the 2021 Bennetts British Superbike Championship takes place at Donington Park this weekend with both Christian Iddon and Josh Brookes still in contention to add a third successive crown for Paul Bird’s Penrith-based team.
Following on from the success at Oulton Park last weekend, which saw both VisionTrack Ducati riders on the podium, the pair arrive at Donington Park’s Grand Prix track in confident mood.
Tyneside-based Iddon occupies fourth in the standings after two podiums in as many meetings and is just 33 points adrift of the series leader with six races left of the season. He would have been higher had he not clashed with another rider in the final race at Oulton Park which left him down in 11th place so will be looking to make amends this weekend.
Defending champion Brookes has endured a tough season but is coming good when it matters and posted a pair of second place finishes at Oulton to record his best results of the season. Despite a crash in race two at the previous round, the Bedfordshire-based Aussie has scored four podiums in the last five races and although his 51-point gap to the leader is substantial, there are still 150 points up for grabs so it's distinctly possible to retain his title.
Christian Iddon: “We had good pace when we were at the Donington Park national track a couple of months ago, but we didn’t capitalise on that and get the results we were capable of. Now we really need the results so I’m going all out to make that happen. The longer track tends to suit us even better so that should be good, and everything is still to play for. After Oulton Park, the gap to the leaders has reduced which can only be positive so I’m looking for a really strong weekend to get myself in contention and we can fight it out going into the final three races at Brands Hatch.”
Josh Brookes: “My thoughts are haunted by that crash at Oulton as I threw away valuable points, so I need to forget about that and concentrate on the job in hand. The podiums have been coming fairly consistently lately so that’s a good thing. We just need to stay positive, and I know we have a mountain to climb to win the championship but if that’s not possible, then the plan is to go out with some good results and our heads held high. We’ve come so close to winning recently that it would be good to box some off now. The bike is good, I’m a lot more confident and optimism is high right now.”
Images courtesy of Double Red: Josh Brookes (25) and Christian Iddon (21)
