Mackenzie grabs first BSB point with new team Moto Rapido at Donington

The first day was cold and Wet so Taylor had some learning to do as he had yet to ride the bike in the wet, needless to say he was making some good improvements over the first two practice sessions and we ended the day in front of last years championship runner up Josh Brookes. 

Day two we had been warned of the possible snow or rain that was heading our way for race day and the Sunday was to be condense into a short practice session, a twenty minute break then straight into a thirty minute qualification race, all hard work in you fell off in the practice session…… we made it through the first dry practice session of the weekend unscathed, we headed into the Qualifying with confidence but Taylor crashed out on Lap 8 down Craner Curves on some oil on the circuit from another rider. 

We then had a big task ahead of getting the bike ready as the race was brought forward. We lined up on the grid for Race 1 in 19^th Place, Taylor had a good start and on lap four caught the gear lever on a kerb  which broke it meaning he was struggling to find gears, being a quick thinker he managed to adjust his riding position as such to make it through the race and getting that all important 15^th place and first point of the season for the team.

Day Three and the final race day was water logged, MSVR had cancelled all riding in the morning with the possibility of the rain subsiding in the afternoon enough for us to race.

As predicted the rain stopped and the track temperature rose to 13.9 degrees, this created more problems as the track was wet with a drying line, last minute decisions with wheel and suspension changes on the grid meant we opted for a dry setting which payed off. The first few laps were scary as there was only one line round most of the corners. We finished the race in 16^th and are happy with our progress with Taylor over the weekend.

There is so much testing you can do but under the pressure of a race weekend we learn so much more.

This is what Taylor had to say to Ducati UK after the race:

“My goal coming into the weekend was to try and grab a point. Just because, I've had so little time on the bike and the team haven’t really had much time with me. It was always going to be a tough weekend. [In Race 2] I didn’t ride good enough at the start. But we’re through it in one piece and onto the next one. Once I’ve got a few more laps, that’s been the main thing I’ve struggled with so far, we didn’t have any dry track time really here. At Brands Indy we’ll have no shortage of laps going round and round and round. So, it’ll be good there.”