The FHO Racing BMW team will head into their home round of Cadwell Park next weekend maintaining the lead in the Pirelli National Superstock Championship, despite a challenging event for the team at Donington Park.

Alex Olsen is equal with rival Tom Neave on points at the top of the table despite suffering a technical problem in the opening race of the weekend, which left him missing out on fighting for the podium position. The team got him back out on track to set a lap time to move him up the grid for race two, where he scored crucial points in eighth place.

In the Bennetts British Superbike Championship, Peter Hickman had shown strong pace during the weekend, topping the free practice times on Friday and claiming the team their first front row start of the season in qualifying.

However a challenging opening race saw Hickman finish in ninth place, but he fought back in race two, just missing out on the podium in fourth place. The final race of the weekend proved to be a tyre gamble, which didn’t play into the hands of the Lincolnshire contender and he finished in 14th place. However, he still holds a position currently in the all-important top eight in the standings ahead of Cadwell Park.

Xavi Forés finished the Donington Park races with a best result of eighth place in another disappointing weekend for the Spanish rider as he continues to try and move closer to the front of the pack.

Brian McCormack had his most difficult weekend of the season so far, failing to finish in the races.

Peter Hickman
R1: 9^th, R2: 4^th, R3: 14^th

“Another disappointing weekend really as we had all the potential to be on the podium and fighting for wins. We had a really great start to free practice and qualifying and it all ended up coming to nothing in the end, but it was a really positive weekend for the FHO Racing BMW team.

“The BMW is really strong, I feel strong and we have been fast and at the front, I made a wrong choice on the tyre for race three. There is nobody to blame but myself as I thought after the sighting lap it would have stayed wet for longer. We take the positives to Cadwell Park, a good track for me in the past, so hopefully we can capitalise on that in a few days’ time.”

Xavi Forés
R1: 14^th, R2: 8^th, R3: DNF

“It was another tough weekend and I had expected a lot from Donington Park, but unfortunately I couldn’t feel comfortable with the set-up to stay with the pack. For sure, we were not too far away but a few tenths make a big difference.

“In race two I was in the top ten, so that felt better and now we look to work hard again at Cadwell Park to try and move forward and have a good jump on the standings.” 

Brian McCormack
R1: DNF, R2: DNF, R3: DNF

“Unfortunately it has been a disastrous weekend for me, but I feel that I made good progress with the bike. I had a good run on Saturday before the crash and that hampered race two. In race three I wanted to make the most of the conditions, but a rider in front of me had a moment and I had nowhere to go. It was disappointing but we move on to Cadwell Park and I am looking forward to that.”

Alex Olsen
R1: 28^th, R2: 8^th 

“It hasn’t been the weekend we had hoped or planned for; race one didn’t go to plan with a small technical issue at the start of the race, which hindered us. We made a decision in the pits to put a lap in, which pushed us further up the starting grid for today’s race, and ninth on the grid was better than where it could have been. It was hard from the third row but we salvaged some strong points and left the weekend leading the championship, so that was good. Now we can look forward to Cadwell Park.”

Team Owner Faye Ho

“The results really don’t show the pace that we had this weekend at Donington Park, so it is disappointing for Pete to have missed out on the podium. He came close in race two, and I am sure would have been in the fight in the final race, had it not been for the tyre choice.

“On the positive side we still lead the Pirelli National Superstock Championship standings with Alex, he had a challenging weekend too, but we will regroup and come back stronger at Cadwell Park next weekend.”

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