The opening race of the Bennetts British Superbike race weekend at Donington Park ended with McAMS Racing and Danny Kent taking fifth place at the flag, progressing through the field to recover from a small but costly mistake on Lap 1.

The penultimate race weekend of the 2024 season began in positive spirit for Kent and the team, who ventured out onto a drying track with a set of hard wet tyres installed for Free Practice 1.

The strategical, 40-minute session saw Kent complete a full race distance, collecting crucial data on the hard-wet compound of tyre, finishing in 14th at the flag but with data behind them as they progressed further into the weekend.

In Free Practice 2 later in the afternoon, the team continued along an upward trajectory, capping off Friday’s action in sixth in the overall timesheets, with a spot secured in Saturday’s Qualifying 2 session.

Come Saturday morning, Free Practice 3 provided one final opportunity to get the Yamaha R1 dialled in before a crucial Qualifying session to dictate the grid for the opening race of the weekend.

Punching in a best time of 1:27.548 towards the closing stages of the session, Kent secured a front row start, inserting himself into a good spot to fight at the front.

As 16:00 on Saturday arrived, the lights dropped on the 20-lap charge to the flag. Kent made a positive start from the front row and sat comfortably in second place throughout most of the lap.

An unfortunate mistake cost the rider from Tetbury a host of positions, after failing to make the chicane at the bottom of Starkey’s Straight. Running on and losing out on several positions, Kent re-joined the field in 11th with work to do from the start of Lap 2.

Embracing the spirit of never giving up, Kent continued to push on, making up several positions by half race distance to keep his hopes alive for a positive result at the flag.

As the race progressed, the #52 rider picked off one rider at a time, entering sixth and latching himself onto the group, battling for third, on Lap 17.

On the penultimate lap of the 20-lap charge, the Yamaha R1 rider made a move into fifth at the Old Hairpin, maintaining position to further-assert his capability of running at the front.

Although a disappointing result, both Kent and the team can take the positive of exceptional progression, quickly settling back into a competitive rhythm and recovering six places since the mistake on Lap 1.

Heading into Sunday’s track action, Kent maintains his position of fifth in the standings but narrows the gap to fourth down to just a single point.

As the McAMS-backed outfit look ahead to tomorrow, hope in the camp remains high for a potential top-3 finish. Having demonstrated an ability to fight through the field and make up ground following a mistake, Kent’s proficient pace around the 2.49 mile circuit remains unquestionable.

The Yamaha-powered squad retain the r spot on the front row heading into Race 2 tomorrow, lining up on third to be in the mix yet again.