The opening day of the Bennetts British Superbike Championship R&G Official Test at Donington Park was hindered by the weather conditions, however the FHO Racing BMW teammates did venture out onto the damp circuit to close the first day.
The pairing of Josh Brookes and Peter Hickman both headed out onto the track after an earlier shower to get their first chance to ride the BMW M 1000 RR in 2023, with some initial laps after the winter break. They completed a handful of laps, whilst Davey Todd and Charlie Nesbitt also ventured out briefly at the end of the day.
Brookes said: “We did not have the luxury of any other testing previously so we needed to go out, but I do wonder why very few other people went out on the track today. With the first round less than two weeks’ away, we are potentially going to be riding in similar conditions.
“We thought it was necessary to understand the bike in not ideal conditions. I still need to understand how the bike works in these conditions, should we have to ride in them. Unfortunately, we didn’t have any dry laps so there wasn’t a lot of information to be gained.
“In general, I feel super confident on the bike considering the day was cold and wet. To be able to enjoy myself riding in those conditions suggests that the confidence is there in the bike. We were even able to make a couple of changes; initially I rode the bike on the dry settings on springs and damping in the suspension and just opened up the clickers a bit to soften everything off.
“In the end we went to a more full wet setting, softer springs and damping, and the bike reacted in a positive way. I felt like I had the confidence to ride in the wet conditions. We then made some adjustments to engine break control because you can’t enter the corners with as much grip and speed in the wet as you can in dry.
“It was pleasing that the bike was consistent, even with the back drifting a little bit in the turns, it was consistent in giving positive feedback.”