British Super Bikes - Donington round 10

1st - 3rd October 2021

The penultimate British Superbikes round at Donington park was going to be a challenging event to photograph. According to the British Meteorological Office it was going to be a wet one and they were right, so very right.

Taking photos in heavy rain is challenging and demanding but can produce dramatic images that can make the effort worthwhile.

So with a positive attitude and a full set of waterproof clothing, two of us set off to Donington to capture the action on the Saturday and Sunday race days.

So before we get into the action let’s talk about take photos in the rain. It should be obvious, but to produce rain you need clouds and clouds reduce the amount of light that reflects off the subject you are shooting.

This can be a good thing - the clouds will diffuse the light (light travels in straight lines), so clouds scatter it making shadows less harsh and the subject more pleasing to look at. 

Think of a flash gun. Direct flash will produce harsh shadows, an indirect flash bounced off the ceiling or wall will look much nicer. It’s the same principle, the light is scattered.

An added benefit of a cloudy day means you don’t have to follow the sun round the track  - you can shoot where ever you fancy.

The down side of clouds is you never know what you are going to get. Thin wispy to thick dark thunderstorms will all produce different lighting effects.

The forecast for Saturday was torrential rain which equates to thick clouds, which also meant it was going to be dark. This has a side effect of reducing the amount of light reaching your lens which means colours will also be muted. 

All of these effects can be negated to a certain amount with modern cameras with their high ISO capabilities, so with that in mind I picked a Nikon D7200 to take to the track.

The 7200 is not that modern any more, but compared to my single digit pro-body cameras which are ancient, it handles low light well and as it is a DX camera it gives me that extra reach that you need at Donington.

My old/modern D7200 worked well and produced the results I wanted. The other two photographers were using pro level kit. RPW Photography had a Nikon D4 and Keith Adcock a D850 and all of us used the Nikon 200-500mm. 

I also used a 1.4 teleconverter when the sun came out making the combination of the D7200 and the 200-500mm lens have a maximum range of 1050mm, which is more than enough for capturing the action at Donington. The example below is f8, 1000sec, 700mm at ISO400.

So let's take a quick look at the action in the support races first. Then we will dive into the British Superbikes.

In the Supersport Lee Johnston won the very wet Saturday sprint race ahead of Mason Law and Scott Swann to close the gap on Championship leader #4 Jack Kennedy.

The Sunday race was a bit of a disaster for Johnston who crashed out with Bradley Perie on lap 17. Kennedy went on to win, extending his championship lead to 34 points over Ben Currie.

In the British Talent cup Casey O'Gorman won the final two races in the series to win the Championship. Casey has now been selected to race in the Red Bull MotoGP Rookies Cup. 

In the 14 lap Junior Superstock race #22 Zak Corderoy took the win from #15 Eugene McManus, with #14Jack Nixon coming in third.

With two races left and 50 points up for grabs at Brands Hatch the championship is now down to two riders -  Jack Nixon on 256 and Joe Talbot 13 points behind on 243. 

In the very wet first National Superstock race of the weekend Lewis Rollo on the RAF Regular and Reserves Kawasaki took the win. Rollo passed Billy McConnell early in the race who then crashed out at Coppice, dropping not only his bike but valuable championship points.

However, Tom Neave the championship leader only managed 11th place and 5 points on race one. Road race expert Davey Todd came in second followed by Tim Neave.

Race two on Sunday was dry and it was back to the usual suspects at the front when the chequered flag dropped. Taylor MacKenzie first, Billy McConnell and Tom Neave.

It's all to play for at Brands, with McConnell 23 points behind championship leader Neave and Alex Olson one point behind McConnell in third. 

So on to the British Superbikes racing, or should that be who stayed on their bikes and who didn’t. The weather was the main factor in the racing all weekend.

In all the classes including the Showdown, title contenders appeared to be happy to pick up points in the changeable conditions, whereas the rest of the racers were happy to throw caution to the wind and go for glory.

The glory was grabbed with both hands by Gino Rea, taking the top spot for the first time in BSB in two of the three races and becoming  the eighth rider to win a race this season.

 He was helped in the first race by many of the championship contenders crashing out.

He didn’t get an easy ride in the first race, Danny Buchan pushed him all the way and he took the lead, but over shot the corner at Redgate for Rea to get back in front and pull away from the pack.

The fight for the last two places on the podium was a war of attrition.  Bridewell had it, then fell off, Storm Stacey had it in his grasp, then fell off. Kyle Ryde eventually joined him on the podium with Christian Iddon in third.

We returned on Sunday for the final two races where the sun came out, for a while and we had the welcome return of the pit walk. The fans could meet the riders and have a look in the garages at the bikes being prepared for the following two races.

In race two it looked like Rea was going to get a good result again leading from the start, but Storm Stacey had other ideas and took the lead.

Rea was having none of that and took it back. Slowly making his way from the fifth row on the start grid, Tarren Mackenzie picked off the leaders to take an impressive win and put him equal on points with championship leader O’Halloran.

Spots of rain just before the warm up lap for race three hinted at the torrential rain that would follow.

And boy did it rain! The race was delayed as standing water was removed from the track ,and the bikes had wet weather tyres fitted and suspension adjustments.

I was up at Coppice for the warm up where the PA system isn’t great so I was left in the dark quite literally as the clouds rolled over head as to what was going on.

I decided to head to the Foggy Esses as it was on the way back to my bike which was parked at Redgate.

I wasn’t convinced that the race was going to take place, but it did, and I was just in time to get in position as the clouds parted and the sun came out.

Rea did it again in the wet conditions, taking the lead from Mackenzie who would retire from the race when his bike died and he coasted to a halt.

Iddon came in second to give his title challenge a big boost as O’Halloran ended up in eighth on his Yamaha which had a special silver livery to celebrate 25 years of McAMS racing .

Lee Jackson finally got on the podium in third after a load of fourth place finishes, which pleased me a lot. He has put in some great performances so it was fantastic to see him get some silverware for the effort and determination he has shown this season.

I don’t think it will be the last trophy he will pop on his mantlepiece, as he now leads the riders' championship heading into the final round at Brands ahead of Bradley Ray.

As I walked back to my bike I passed through the paddock where the teams were taking down the temporary  garages. Notable was the amount of smashed fairings stacked up - there were a lot. Amongst the broken carbon and fibreglass fragments there was probably a few riders' broken dreams also lying in the puddles.

To sum-up, Mackenzie now leads the championship from #22 O’Halloran with only six riders out of the eight able to take the top spot. It’s going to be a must-watch event when the final three races of the season are held at Brands Hatch in a week's time.

Race one

1. Gino Rea
2. Kyle Ryde
3. Christian Iddon

Race Two

1. Tarren MacKenzie
2. Danny Buchan
3. Christian Iddon

Race Three

1. Gino Rea
2. Christian Iddon
3. Lee Jackson

Championship Standings after Round 9

Thanks go out to Keith Adcock and RPW Photography for helping out with images for this report.