The opening weekend of the MCE British Superbike Championship season was a learning curve for Tommy Hill and his BeWiser Kawasaki team.

Hill took his new outfit to Donington Park for the opening weekend of the season looking for a good performance from new riders Danny Buchan and the veteran Chris Walker.

It wasn’t the best weekend for Buchan with two DNFs after crashing out of both races, but Walker showed all his experience netting the team a pair of top ten finishes, with eighth in race one and tenth in race two.

Qualifying for Danny rode showed just how good he can be as he rode a stunning first session and ended up second quickest, easily through to qualifying two. He pushed hard in the second session to finish fifth and come the final session of the Datatag qualifying he ended up finishing sixth, a great position on the grid for his first race with the Be Wiser Kawasaki Team.

He got a great start during race one and was fifth at the end of lap one, the safety car was deployed on lap two for three laps. As the car came in, Danny charged through to fourth place, then past Easton moving him up to third on lap five. He was fighting hard with Stuart Easton and Dan Linfoot and dropped down to fifth position. Disaster struck sadly on lap 11 when Buchan crashed out at the Esses from fifth position bringing an abrupt end to his first race.

Chris Walker suffered a few minor electrical problems throughout Saturday and the team worked hard during the night to ensure it was solved. Sunday was his first real track time and in free practice three he moved up to 16^th, 1.2 seconds off provisional pole. He was 15^th in qualifying one and through to the second session where he ended in 16^th for race one.

Chris got one of his amazing starts and was 12^th after the opening lap, the ‘Old but Gold’ rider had to work exceedingly hard for the 20-lap race to push his way up to eighth position at the chequered flag. Chris really did have to work hard and was pushed throughout the majority of the race by ex-Moto GP rider Michael Laverty.

In the second race Danny started from ninth place on the grid and Chris from 14^th. Chris once again got a flying start and was up to 10^th after the opening lap with Danny in 12^th position. The Be Wiser Kawasaki pair were both fighting hard setting some consistent lap times. Danny once again was battling up through the field and made it up to seventh at one point but was unfortunate to crash out again on lap 16 of the 20 lap race. Chris was again fought hard for the 20 laps and he secured a 10^th place finish, a strong result for the season opener.

Speaking after his first weekend as Team Manager, Tommy said:  “Well that was the first ever race for the Be Wiser Kawasaki team at Donington and we learnt a lot and will continue to make progress throughout the season.

“Chris had a very consistent weekend and was making some good progress in both races chasing the leading pack. He worked hard throughout both races and has come away with some solid results for the team. He has certainly built his confidence this weekend and has adapted to working with a new team well and I’m sure that will only get better as the season goes on.

“I am really pleased with Danny the crashes do not represent the effort he has put in throughout the weekend and the pace that he was showing at times. He really did work hard and it was unfortunate to have the crashes he did, but he is still only very young and it is a long season. We can build on this and settle him down at the remaining races but he is more than capable of some strong results.”

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