TAS Racing will commence its 20th year of competitive action this season as the Bennetts British Superbike Championship returns at Donington Park on the National Circuit.
Re-branded SYNETIQ BMW Motorrad for ‘twenty-twenty’, Hector and Philip Neill’s official BMW Motorrad team, will field Bradley Ray and Taylor Mackenzie on S1000RR machinery. The recent official test at the venue gave both riders an opportunity to ride their TAS Racing prepared S1000RR Superbikes and re-familiarise themselves with the Donington Park National Circuit.
Ray said: “I’m super excited to get started at Donington Park for round one of the British Superbike Championship. I’m feeling really comfortable on my SYNETIQ BMW and I’m also gelling with the TAS Racing team really well. It’s going to be an interesting year with only six rounds, but it’s also going to be very busy with three races at every round; and of course, we are racing in a conventional championship this season, so we get to fight right until the last race. Overall, I’m feeling happy and confident in myself and I feel going into this season, I’m more ready than ever.”
Taylor Mackenzie enjoyed a couple of appearances on TAS Racing BMW S1000RR Superbike machinery at the end of last season, following a very successful year in the Superstock class, also aboard a BMW S1000RR. Unfortunately, he is currently recovering from a knee ligament strain that he picked up a number of weeks ago. This will potentially hamper his progress at round one, but he is ready to battle through and pick up some valuable points on the opening weekend of the 2020 season.
Mackenzie said: “Ironically with the lockdown this was the fittest I’d ever been coming into a season, but the knee injury in training has been a set-back and I’m now less prepared that I would like to have been. I’m not one hundred percent where I should be or would like to be. In saying that, I’m glad that I’m going to be riding my SYNETIQ BMW this weekend at Donington Park and hopefully with track-time and regular physiotherapy I will be back to where I need to be very soon.”
Philip Neill, SYNETIQ BMW Team Principal commented: “Although there will clearly be some changes in routine this weekend we are really excited to open our 2020 BSB campaign. Credit must go to MSVR for getting the season back on track in view of the significant challenges presented during recent months.
“Although testing has been limited we have added a number of significant technical updates to our SYNETIQ BMW S1000RR with the full support of our colleagues in World Superbike. Both riders have reacted positively to the technical updates and although some fine tuning is still required, we expect to open our account strongly this weekend with a specific importance placed on consistency during the early season races.
“This weekend also marks our first opportunity to introduce our title partner SYNETIQ to BSB and although not present in numbers this weekend due to the current restrictions, we hope everyone involved enjoys watching from home.
“Of course we will miss our supporters on site at Donington however, I’m certain the series broadcaster will do a superb job relaying the action to fans at home and we hope everyone enjoys the entertainment after the long delay.”