Charlie Nesbitt will make his Bennetts British Superbike Championship debut this weekend, after he was called up to ride the Buildbase Suzuki GSX-R1000R at Donington Park, deputising for Christian Iddon who is currently sidelined through injury.
Nesbitt has been impressing this season in the Pirelli National Superstock Championship aboard the VisionTrack-sponsored GSX-R machinery, with the class rookie taking his first victory at Cadwell Park. The former National GP champion has already had his first taste of a superbike-spec GSX-R, after getting a few laps under his belt at the Cadwell Park test in August.
Unfortunately, for Iddon he remains sidelined after suffering a concussion and a broken hand in a crash at the previous round at Oulton Park, where he was collected by another rider in race two while battling for a podium.
Nesbitt said: “I can’t wait to get going. Obviously, it’s unfortunate, what happened to Christian and you don’t want to get your shot on a superbike that way. But I had the chat with Steve [Hicken – team manager] on Sunday after Oulton because he knew that, with Christian being knocked out, he’d be unable to ride this weekend.
“I’ve had a go on the superbike already; I’ve done a handful of laps at Mallory and did a session at Cadwell. Obviously not enough to get dialled in but enough to get an idea of how it feels, which is completely different to my stocker, with more power, more revs, better brakes, stiffer chassis, and so on.
“This weekend we’ll use FP1 to get comfortable, but I think my experience on the GP2 bike will help as I’ve at least got experience on a stiffer race bike, of using slicks. And then we’ll get into it from there. The team aren’t putting any pressure on me and have told me to go out and enjoy it, and I’m not putting too much on myself, but I’m a motorcycle racer so I’ve got an idea of where I want to be after Sunday.”