Rory Skinner pronounced himself happy with the first impressions of his new BMW M 1000 RR steed for the new season as he limbers up for his return to the Bennetts British Superbike Championship this year.

The Scotsman is back in BSB after switching to the world stage in 2023 with a stint in the Moto2 World Championship. 

However, after parting ways with American Racing at the season’s end, Skinner has found refuge with BSB stalwarts TAS Racing to ride its single Cheshire Mouldings-backed BMW M 1000 RR entry.

Finding his groove on a Superbike again following his transition to prototype Moto2 machinery, Skinner - who reached the Title Showdown with FS-3 Racing Kawasaki in 2022 - feels he is making decent progress ahead of the new season.

“The first official test at Donington Park for me was really good actually,” he told the BSB website. 

“It was nice to ride the Cheshire Mouldings BMW for the first time. It was really productive for us, we managed to get through quite a lot of the stuff that we set out to do and the initial feeling on the bike was really good.

“I was really happy with how quickly I clicked with it and it felt like we made decent progress in the time that we had on it. 

“We just focused on trying different things, understanding which direction we needed to go, so by the end of the first day I was quite happy with the progress we’d made.

“I’m really looking forward to Navarra, I’m feeling ready to go, really looking forward to being back racing in BSB and I think it’s going to be a fantastic first round.”