BSB:Donington Park Part One - Countdown To Showdown!

So, it really is last chance saloon now, peeps, for the riders of the British Superbike Championship to book their places in the Showdown in a fortnight's time in Assen at the legendary TT circuit.

For now though, it was off to Donington Park and the final two races to do just that; get the points needed to secure a top six position. The favourites so far have to be considered as one of either the Rapid Solicitors Kawasaki of Shane 'Shakey' Byrne, the Samsung Honda of Alex Lowes or the Tyco Suzuki of Josh Brookes.

Other contenders looking to confirm their spot, the aforementioned three already having done that prior to this event, are James Ellison, Ryuichi Kiyonari & then one from either Jon Kirkham, James Westmoreland (Westie as I'll be calling him, like so many others do, in this review!) or Tommy Bridewell who languishes 25 points back from making the cut.

Kirkham it is who currently holds that illustrious sixth spot in the Showdown ahead of his team-mate, Westmoreland and the pair of them seemed positive in the 'Grill the Grid' section of ITV4's broadcast that no matter who out of the two of them finished there, the rest of the team would still provide the support... now that is teamwork, bro's!

Onto qualifying...

QUALIFYING

Knowing that it was some of the riders' last chance to get into the top six, you could be forgiven for thinking that those lingering around the threshold of said top six, would be anything but friendly in the coming double-header.

James Ellison was only seven points away from securing his spot and after the disappointment and failure to do so last time out at Silverstone, he would surely be looking to make amends this time around.

So far, so good for Ellison as he secured third position in qualifying only to be beaten by Lowes who was looking likely for a pole position until James Westmoreland, the surprise package of the weekend set a blistering time of 1:29.726, a full two and a half tenths ahead of Lowes' time.

First blood to Westie then, it would seem as Kirkham could only manage a ninth placed start!

On the second row was Byrne, Brookes, Bridewell (who unfortunately tipped off at the Goddard's hairpin in the session, so to nail it in sixth is impressive. Byrne is the surprising one for me, really, as he's normally consistent with his front row qualifications, but hey, maybe he'd make it up in the race...

THE RACE

As soon as the lights went out Westmoreland unfortunately seemed to get swallowed by the first five or so riders of the grid and it wasn't necessarily that he got a bad start (though the clutch of the BMW could be sluggish at times to get it going compared to the others regularly at the sharp end of the spectrum), just that the others got a much better one!

Off they went and it was Lowes first into the corner ahead of Byrne, Brookes and Ellison, so far so normal and nothing out of the ordinary there then, which was not necessarily what those languishing around the drop zone needed to see because they could all do with maximising their points advantage over their nearest competitors.

Advantage Lowes and Byrne as the further around the circuit they got, the more they were able to pull away from their rivals and the next change of order of that group was the following pack as Ellison got Brookes going through the Fogarty S's. By this time, Kirkham still hadn't made any ground upon eighth position so it was still advantage Westie at this time.

Westie it was, who managed to clamber up from sixth into fifth over the Quattro Plant Kawasaki of Chris Walker proving that either he or Kirkham would definitely be going through to the Showdown. It looked highly likely at this point that it would be Westie though.

To give you an idea of how determined he was to not only finish about Kirkham, but also as high as he could up the grid, Westmoreland managed to set a fastest lap on 9 of 20 going 1:29.815 proving that his presence so near to the front of the chasing pack was no fluke.

Tommy Bridewell got himself into a bit of trouble further on in the race, slowing considerably and then looking instinctively over his shoulder to make sure if he pulled off, he would not collect a fellow rider on lap 16. This allowed Westmoreland to pass him and whilst all eyes were on the pair of these, very little else had changed up front.

For Byrne, however, it definitely seemed to be one of those "should I?/shouldn't I?" moments as repeatedly he looked as though he was going to consider making a move on Lowes for the race win, but each time he backed out way before it was too late. Odds on then for Lowes for the win? Make it three for three in terms of consecutive race wins?

Afterwards it was revealed by Byrne that he was thinking of safety first as he did not wish to cause problems for Lowes and force him to crash out by trying anything overtly aggressive, though he did miss a gear in one crucial moment that would have seen him take the victory.

Behind him, it was still Ellison, Brookes, Westmoreland, Kirkham (who'd finally managed to shake off and pass Chris Walker, heading into the final laps. Walker it was who led Jakob Smrz & Barry Burrell who led an impressive race to finish in tenth position!

Down came the chequered flag then and that meant Westmoreland had managed to not only qualify on pole, but he'd converted that pole into a solid 6th place finish that meant he was looking favourite to usurp his team-mate, Kirkham, from the Showdown spot with a race spare.

RACE TWO

So with riders' first race lap times taken into account, Westmoreland once again was on pole position, followed by Lowes, Ellison, Byrne and Brookes (in other words the usual contenders!) with Bridewell impressive in sixth position.

Once again, the championship's main contenders got the better of Westmoreland and overtook him in one fell swoop with Lowes leading the way whilst John Kirkham took advantage of his start to overtake his team-mate and prove that he wasn't just going to go away overnight. Josh Brookes was looking to make up ground early on in that first lap and managed to get the better of Ellison in a bid to close down the two leaders who were in danger of pulling away again.

By the fifth lap there was no change in positions for the major championship players, so it was anyone's guess whether Lowes would be a shoe-in for the double again. But would Westie manage to spoil the party? With a new lap record set at this point of 1:29.677, faster by 7 thousandths of a second than the last one, you'd be hard pressed not to think that!

Now that Brookes had taken Ellison, he proved that he was going to fight for all he was worth for those seven points he needed to ensure that he got into the Showdown safely and he overtook him back again setting up what was likely to be a consistent squabble throughout the race.

Seeing Ellison take advantage like this of Brookes' positioning, Westie himself managed to get the better of the Tyco Suzuki rider and approaching Goddard's is where he got the job done. The fire was well and truly with Ellison at this point as he managed to chase down and take Byrne for position who in taking avoiding action slammed the door on a compromised Westmoreland.

Now was his chance to take Lowes, whilst the momentum was with him, but as he tried to get the job done, his bike locked up and he was forced to run wide throwing the points wide open for those that wanted more than what they already had!

This allowed Tommy Bridewell to push for positions and one by one he ticked them all off the list, getting up as high as second before Byrne passed him and again looked to hunt down Lowes for the race win.

A little further back was Westmoreland, who knew that a fourth placed position would guarantee that he had indeed got the job done in stealing sixth position from the defending Kirkham in terms of the championship standings.

This of course casts a dilemma on who should be "Rider Of The Day", and believe me it's a tough one as you can guess, but stay tuned for the next part of my review --->>