It was a tough opening round of the Bennetts British Superbike Championship at Donington Park for Alex Olsen at the weekend.

The racer from Cooling had a best finish of 11th place in the weekends three races, with a better result than his more experienced teammate Peter Hickman.

Both he and team-mate Hickman encountered issues during the weekend, with Alex qualifying in 16th place for the opening round of the 2020 season.

The race saw perfect conditions all round the 1.9-mile National circuit and a good start by the Olsen enabled him to make good strides forward. Olsen was to overtake his teammate on lap 14 to take a solid 11th place.

It meant he started Sunday’s first race from 16th  on the grid and he gained a place at the end of the first lap. He then found himself locked in battle at the bottom end of the top 15 as he exchanged places with Yamaha’s Jack Kennedy on more than one occasion. He crossed the line in 14th place for two more championship point.

In the final race of the weekend, it was Alex’s turn to be out of luck when he was forced to retire just after half race distance with a failed gear position sensor.

Speaking after the opening weekend of the season, Olsen said: “It hasn’t really gone our way this weekend and, like Pete, I struggled on the entry to the corners with the brakes too.

“We did improve things race on race but whilst we improved in some areas, we lost in others and I had to make lunges to overtake people rather than them being smooth, clean passes. The final race was the best in terms of how the bike performed but on this occasion a sensor failed and I had to retire.

“We’ve made a lot of changes for little reward this weekend but on the plus side, I was able to fight for the points in each race and 11th in race one is my best BSB finish to date so we’ll keep working hard and look to crack the top ten next time out.”

Images courtesy of Double Red Photographic