DAO RACING BATTLE THE ELEMENTS AND COMPLETE POSITIVE DONINGTON PARK TEST

DAO Racing Honda bravely battled strong winds at Donington Park over the Easter weekend with both Josh Brookes and Lee Jackson making positive strides forward and wrapping up the opening official test on a positive note.

Following a short break after arriving back in the UK from private testing in Spain, the DAO Racing Honda squad headed to Donington Park in a buoyant mood, confident of more progress in the teams development of their Honda CBR1000RR-R Fireblades ahead of the start of the 2026 ZYN British Superbike Championship.

The opening day of action on Good Friday saw both Brookes and Jackson continue to fine-tune their base settings of the Fireblade, with Josh finishing eighth in the combined times, after making further progress with his machine. ‘LeeBob’s’ fortunes would be contrasting to that of his teammate, however, after sticking to his programme and continuing to work hard with his crew, he made a breakthrough in the third and final session, seeing him post his fastest lap of the day in the process.

Day two would see the team once again work relentlessly to try to make strides forward with the set-up of both machines, with Jackson’s side of the garage finding a breakthrough courtesy of a new component.

The windy conditions would ultimately make it hard work out on track, but Josh and Lee posted their fastest laps of the test in the process, finishing ninth and 14th respectively on combined times.

Josh Brookes: “Overall I think we’ve had a positive test, the final day was super hard, we got down to a 1:27.9 on Friday and then Saturday we tried a variation of set-ups to try and refine the package further, but we keep gaining in one spot and lose out in another. We’ve been actively making changes to try make an improvement without losing out somewhere else, and we just haven’t been able to achieve that. My guys have worked super hard in search of something, but it just made it feel like a hard day.

“We’ve finished the test on the same lap time that we achieved on day one, we’ve refined the package to a level, we just now need to find a way to move forwards. I know we can, there are areas that we can improve and I think the information we have gathered from this test is valuable. There are more positives to take from this than I feel there are right now, and I’m sure we’ll make another step forward at Oulton Park.”

Lee Jackson: “Our backs have been up against the wall during these last two days at Donington Park I’d say. I’ve lacked a little bit of self-confidence, I’ve been trying to improve the bike, understand all the new components we’ve got and improve how I work with my new crew for this year, but we’ve made some good steps in all honesty.

“I tried a new swinging arm during the test, and I feel much happier with that, it’s a lot better for me and I’ve really enjoyed using it, so we can now build on that success at the next test.

“At times we hit stumbling blocks, we tried to make the bike better, but unfortunately, we’ve had to battle against the elements. However, during the last run we made a good step, I had much more consistent speed, and posted my fastest lap of the two days.

“I’m not pleased finishing where I have finished, but we now have a good direction and understanding of where we need to go at the next test at Oulton Park, which will hopefully push us closer to fighting at the front.”

Team manager Jonny Bagnall: “Leaving Spain we still had some things that we wanted to work through, and the team have successfully done that. It’s been a relatively positive test, we have made breakthroughs in some areas and finding new directions with certain fresh components, and we have built on what we found during our private tests. We’re still lacking something with both bikes, but we have identified where we can improve with the data we have gathered here.

“Looking at the rest of the field, I don’t think we’re too far away, especially compared to the other riders on Honda’s, but it still would have been nice to finish higher up in the standings. We’ll regroup back at the workshop, make a plan for the final test at Oulton Park and make sure we’re prepared for the opening round of 2026.”

The team will now travel to Oulton Park on April 21/22 for the second, and final, official British Superbike test of 2026.