Tarran Mackenzie took the opening Bennetts British Superbike Championship race win at Donington Park on Sunday afternoon, the McAMS Yamaha rider overhauling Danny Buchan (Synetiq BMW) in the closing stages with Christian Iddon (VisionTrack Ducati) taking third.
Pole man Gino Rea led off the line into Redgate with Storm Stacey ((Team LKQ Euro Car Parts Kawasaki) slotting in behind but the latter nosed into the lead at McLeans whilst Iddon put a strong move on team-mate Josh Brookes through Schwantz Curve.
At the end of the opening lap the running order was Stacey, Rea, Kyle Ryde (Rich Energy OMG Racing BMW), Iddon, Brookes and Lee Jackson (FS-3 Racing Kawasaki) with Mackenzie and team-mate Jason O’Halloran up to ninth and 11th respectively, the Australian having opted for the harder SC0 rear tyre.
Rea was back in the lead at Redgate at the start of lap three and positions further back were changing all the time, the end of the lap seeing Iddon up to second from Buchan, Brookes, Ryde and Stacey who was now beginning to drop back. O’Halloran, meanwhile, had slipped back further to 14th.
By lap five, Iddon, also on the hard rear tyre, was looking to get by Rea but Buchan, Brookes and Ryde were going with him whilst the fastest man on track was now Peter Hickman who had worked his way up to seventh, one place behind Tommy Bridewell.
Buchan moved up to second at the Old Hairpin on lap six and at the Foggy Esses, the BMW man took the lead from Rea with Iddon following him by the Buildbase Suzuki rider at the next corner. Bridewell and Mackenzie were running in sixth and seventh but O’Halloran was still at the back of the pack in 14th.
At the end of the tenth lap, half race distance, Buchan’s lead over Iddon was only two tenths and those two, along with Rea, had opened up a small gap over the rest of the field, Brookes still in fourth but now eight tenths of a second further back. He was coming under pressure too from a charging Mackenzie.
Indeed, the Yamaha man went into fourth at Goddards on lap 11 with Iddon taking the lead from Buchan just a few yards in front of him and looking to cut the gap to Mackenzie at the top of the championship table further.
At two thirds race distance, the front three were still nose to tail but Mackenzie was reeling them in all the time with now less than a second covering the quartet. Hickman’s chances of a good result disappeared though as the chain flew off the FHO Racing BMW as he came out of Coppice on unlucky lap 13.
Mackenzie moved ahead of Rea at the beginning of lap 15 to take over third and Ryde had now latched on to the back of them to make it a quintet disputing the lead. Jackson was now in sixth as Brookes dropped back to ninth, one place ahead of O’Halloran.
Buchan briefly got back ahead of Iddon on lap 16, at the Esses, only for the Ducati man to immediately respond but Buchan had another go at the Old Hairpin a lap later to hit the front once more. Mackenzie also slid up the inside of Iddon at the Melbourne Hairpin and despite being out of the saddle on the exit, held onto second as the race entered its closing stages.
Going into the final lap, the race looked to be between Buchan and Mackenzie with the latter in the lead after getting by Buchan under the brakes into the Foggy Esses and he held on to win by 0.8s, taking over the outright lead in the championship by 18 points.
Iddon took third from Rea with Jackson moving ahead of Ryde to claim fifth whilst Bridewell, Andrew Irwin, O’Halloran and Glenn Irwin completed the top ten.
