You may recall we were guests of the McAMS Yamaha Team at Thruxton, so it was good to see them getting stuck in at Donington Park over the weekend. Jason O’ Halloran was on pole for race one, the Bennetts Bikesocial race, and despite there being a lot of rain around on Saturday, the race was declared dry.
It was all about Jason O’Halloran, McAMS Yamaha, Glenn Irwin, Honda Racing, Tarran Mackenzie, McAMS Yamaha and Christian Iddon, Vision Track Ducati, as these four swapped back and forth over the twenty laps. As the race settled into the final laps it was O’Halloran who kept the others at bay and swiped past the chequered flag for the win.
P1 Jason O’Halloran P2 Glenn Irwin P3 Tarran Mackenzie
As part of the as usual excellent Eurosport coverage over the weekend, they did a piece on Glenn Irwin, in connection with his struggle with his mental health and wellbeing. Although not going into any specific detail, Glenn was open and honest about the predicament in which he found himself in 2019, and how he spoke to team manager Havier Beltran, who helped him come to terms with things. As you are probably aware we are currently involved with and partly funded by the charity Movember, and the Social Connections Challenge with the Distinguished Gentleman’s Ride, so it was great to see this broadcast. In the coming months, we are going to be talking a lot about this subject and creating awareness through our website and social media outlets, in conjunction with our strategic partner, Mental Health Motorbike who were also present at Donington this weekend. We will make the content both entertaining and informative, so stay tuned.
Race two, on the Sunday, was also a dry race with 26 laps, on pole, it was Jason O’Halloran with McAMS Yamaha teammate Tarran Mackenzie P2 and Ryan Vickers, RAF Regular & Reserve Kawasaki P3, but Vickers had a mechanical issue and had to start from pit lane.
The early part of the race saw Tarran Mackenzie lead a very tight group of riders with Andrew Irwin, SYNETIQ BMW Motorrad in P2 and Jason O’Halloran P3, Christian Iddon P4 and Glenn Irwin P5. Soon though Iddon crashed out after contact from Andrew Irwin through a right hander, the incident gaining the interest of race control, and a time penalty imposed on Irwin. Danny Kent also crashed out in a separate incident, it was later reported he has a dislocated hip. Around mid-race, Tarran Mackenzie pulled into the lead again and set about making this race his own.
Lap 17 and Glenn Irwin, who had been slipping down the field, had his rear tyre clipped by Rory Skinner, and Irwin’s Honda went tumbling into the kitty litter. This was an unfortunate racing incident, which Glenn Irwin generously acknowledged post-race. We have been following Rory for some time, and met up with him at Thruxton, and are quite sure this was just an unusual mistake on his part, and, in character, he went to apologise to Glenn afterwards, who had dislocated his shoulder.
The safety car came out for a few laps after Danny Buchan crashed out and they extended the race to 28 laps, but Tarran Mackenzie kept calm and re-asserted his lead, with Jason O’Halloran in P2. On the final lap, O’Halloran slid under Mackenzie, but Tarran was back at him immediately and took the lead, Bradley Ray then took the advantage over Jason, it was so tight over the line that Ray’s team were celebrating a win, justifiable as the timing screen had it that way for a brief moment before reverting to the actual race result which was:
P1 Tarran Mackenzie, McAMS Yamaha, P2 Bradley Ray, Rich Energy OMG Racing BMW, P3 Jason O’Halloran, McAMS Yamaha. Peter Hickman, FHO Racing BMW was P4, having led for a while during the very close race this had been. Tarran, however, was sublime and in a post-race interview, he commented that he was going to do anything, and, everything to win the race.
Race three grid had Peter Hickman on pole, Ryan Vickers P2 and Tarran Mackenzie P3. However, this race was to be part of the whacky races we experienced over the weekend (see our MotoGP report!). From the start, it was Peter Hickman in the lead with Glenn Irwin (his shoulder re-located!) in P2 and Ryan Vickers P3. This race started as a dry race, but within a few laps there was enough rain for the lead riders to raise their hands, and soon after out came the red flag.
After a long delay, the decision was made to declare race 3 a wet race, an understandable and wise decision by Stuart Higgs and race direction, safety first! It did however throw up some difficult decision making, as it was not very wet around the whole track. There were so many combinations of tyre choice on the grid, it was difficult to know who had made the right decision, it varied from full wet, to full intermediate, to wet front, inter rear etc.
After twenty laps the decision making was apparent, and front and back intermediates had won the lottery. So it was P1 Tommy Bridewell, Oxford Products Racing Ducati, P2 Glenn Irwin, Honda Racing, P3 Andrew Irwin, SYNETIQ BMW Motorrad. Glenn Irwin was amazing riding with a re-located shoulder injury. Tarran Mackenzie took the King of Donington Park title. It was also a great race for young Storm Stacey who finished sixth, finishing off a good weekend for him, and well deserved.
It was a crazy weekend. See you at Cadwell Park!
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Author: Martin Northern
Founder of Bike Directory
