A difficult weekend with an early end at Donington Park for Tom Neave

A difficult weekend with an early end at Donington Park for Tom Neave

 In Race Report

Over the weekend after a short break, the Bennetts British Superbike Championship returned to action with Round 3 taking place at Donington Park’s National Circuit, where Tom Neave arrived keen to make amends following his crash last time out. 

During the time-off between rounds, Tom focussed on his recovery, after suffering with concussion following a fall in the final race at Oulton Park. Passing fit in Friday’s medical at the circuit, Tom was given the all clear for the weekend and jumped on his Honda CBR1000RR-R Fireblade SP for the day’s practice sessions.

Although having a good knowledge of Donington’s shorter layout, having scored lap records, podiums and wins aboard the Superstock Fireblade, missing the pre-season test due to weather conditions meant that Tom hadn’t ridden the Superbike-spec machine before at the 1.98-mile circuit.

Wrapping up practice 22nd on the combined times, Tom went into Q1 ready to battle for a spot in Q2, but disaster struck while running ninth when he crashed out, unhurt, at Craner Curves to qualify 22nd for the opening race of the weekend, the eBay Sprint Race.

During the race Tom pushed hard, to make up places and was chasing down a spot in the points, however towards the end of the race he dropped back to take the chequered flag 19th.

After the race and following careful consideration Tom made the decision to sit out of Sunday’s races due to feeling some side effects of the concussion he suffered at Oulton Park. There is now a few weeks break until Round 4 at Knockhill on 17-19 June, which Tom will use to rest and recover.

“This weekend has been a difficult one for me, Donington is a place I love riding at but after taking part in Saturday’s opening race I have decided not to take part in Sunday’s races. I passed the medical assessment at the circuit on Friday, but during the race I was still suffering the effects of my concussion and I don’t want to endanger myself, or anyone else by racing. We have a small break now until the next round at Knockhill, so I’ll focus on being 100% for that round.”