Courageous Camier clinches top-ten finish in Race 1 at Donington

Leon Camier battled through the pain barrier to score a sensational top-ten finish in WorldSBK Race 1 at Donington Park for the Red Bull Honda World Superbike Team, while Jake Gagne finished just outside the points in his Superbike debut at the demanding British circuit.

Starting from P13 on the grid for Race 1, Camier got a good start to make up a couple of positions and set a strong pace on his Fireblade. As the race went on, Camier settled into twelfth place while maintaining a good rhythm and despite being in considerable pain due to his injury, the Briton valiantly charged on and as the chequered flag was waved, crossed the finish line in tenth place.

Gagne also enjoyed some close racing in the pack and after starting the race from the seventh row on the grid, the American rookie was able to pick up positions throughout the race and at the finish line claimed sixteenth place just behind fellow Honda rider and compatriot PJ Jacobsen who took the final points-paying position.

The result sees Camier’s point tally for the season grow to 48 points and he remains in P11 in the championship, while Gagne sits eighteenth overall with seventeen points. The next WorldSBK session is tomorrow’s Warm Up session at 0945 local time (GMT +1) with Race 2 kicking off at 1300.

Leon Camier

Leon Camier 2

What a day! That was a really tough race and in the last laps I managed to battle through the fatigue so to come away with a top ten finish is more than I could have hoped for today. The Fireblade was working really well and I could keep a great pace, particularly in the first two sectors but in the hard braking and left hand turns my injuries made it quite a struggle. The goal today was just to finish the race, but being able to keep pace with the Ducatis in front of me and finish in P10 was encouraging so I’m pretty pleased.

Red Bull Honda World Superbike Team

Jake Gagne

Jake Gagne 45

Today wasn’t an easy day but it was a good experience getting in so many dry laps in around this circuit. Superpole didn’t go as well as we had hoped so I started the race a fair way back and my start wasn’t the best which left me with a lot of work to do in the race. It took a few laps to find my rhythm and in some areas the bike was working well, but in other areas – particularly under braking – we were missing a bit so although I managed to pick up some positions during the race, I think with some changes to the bike and my riding style we can be stronger tomorrow.

Red Bull Honda World Superbike Team

Kervin Bos

Kervin Bos

Team Manager

I’m happy with how our day went today given our situation. Leon’s tenth place was special considering he’s riding with broken ribs, especially as so far this weekend he didn’t manage more than a handful of laps each stint, so for him to complete 23 laps with such a strong pace was a big boost not only for him but also our team. We’ll continue to see how he’s doing but for today we’re very happy with his performance. Jake has been building up steadily this weekend and again he took a step in the race today, he only just missed out on the points today but now he knows the track and we can make some changes overnight so he will try again for to fight for points tomorrow. Today marks the first race since Thailand where both of our riders have completed a race, so we hope this is a turning point for our season and we can start to build momentum again and get the results the team, riders and CBR1000RR Fireblade SP2 are capable of.

Red Bull Honda World Superbike Team

UK Round

Donington Park, United Kingdom

WorldSBK 2018, Round 6

Dry / 18

Saturday 26 May 2018, 12:59 UTC
  • Air Temp: 18°C
  • Humidity: 72%
  • Ground Temp: 30°C

# Rider Num Nationality Nat. Points Pts. Team Constructor Constr. Time/Gap
1 Michael van der Mark 60 NDL 25 Pata Yamaha Yamaha 33’56.530
2 Jonathan Rea 65 GBR 20 Kawasaki Racing Team Kawasaki +1.136
3 Tom Sykes 66 GBR 16 Kawasaki Racing Team Kawasaki +2.193
4 Alex Lowes 22 GBR 13 Pata Yamaha Yamaha +6.642
5 Lorenzo Savadori 32 ITA 11 Milwaukee Aprilia Aprilia +7.331
6 Eugene Laverty 50 GBR 10 Milwaukee Aprilia Aprilia +13.374
7 Loris Baz 76 FRA 9 Althea BMW Racing Team BMW +15.992
8 Chaz Davies 7 GBR 8 Aruba.it Racing Ducati +18.532
9 Leon Haslam 91 GBR 7 Puccetti Racing Kawasaki +20.478
10 Leon Camier 2 GBR 6 Red Bull Honda World Superbike Team Honda +20.634
11 Jordi Torres 81 SPA 5 MV Agusta Reparto Corse MV Agusta +22.503
12 Michael Rinaldi ITA 4 Aruba.it Racing Ducati +33.250
13 Leandro Mercado 36 ARG 3 IodaRacing Team Aprilia +33.771
14 Bradley Ray 28 GBR 2 Buildbase Suzuki Suzuki +36.715
15 PJ Jacobsen 99 USA 1 Triple M Honda World Superbike Team Honda +38.850
16 Jake Gagne 45 USA 0 Red Bull Honda World Superbike Team Honda +42.536
17 Luke Mossey GBR 0 Team Pedercini Kawasaki +42.682
18 Ondrej Jezek 37 CZE 0 Grillini Racing Team Kawasaki +47.849
19 Román Ramos 40 SPA 0 Team Go Eleven Kawasaki +50.256
20 Niccolò Canepa 94 ITA 0 Pata Yamaha Yamaha +52.188
21 Toprak Razgatlioglu 54 TUR 0 Grillini Racing Team Kawasaki +55.588
22 Marco Melandri 33 ITA 0 Aruba.it Racing Ducati +>1
23 Gino Rea 44 GBR 0 OMG Racing Suzuki Suzuki +>1
NC Xavi Fores 12 SPA 0 BARNI Racing Team Ducati DNF
NC Mason Law 55 GBR 0 WD40 Kawasaki Kawasaki DNF
About Michael Le Pard 11173 Articles
"Mr. Totalmotorcycle". Owner and Founder of Total Motorcycle, the World’s Largest Motorcycle Site with over 425 million readers since 1999. Total Motorcycle is my pride and joy and being able to reach 425 million people has been incredible and I could not have done it without the support of my visitors, readers and members...thank you so much! We are all making a difference to millions of riders worldwide.