Gregorio Lavilla, with a victory and a third place, in the rain soaked second round of the Bennetts British Superbike Championship at Donington Park tightened his grip on the crown he won last year.

But in atrocious conditions, the real hero was Scott Smart who splashed his Vivaldi Suzuki to glory, ahead of Leon Haslam, in the afternoon’s second race.

Lavilla, who had taken a winning double at the Leicestershire circuit last year, en route to the crown, had shattered his own lap record to put his Airwaves Ducati onto pole start, had even more speed to come as he set the fastest ever two wheeled lap of the 2.5 mile grand prix circuit in 1m 31.243secs, 98.63mph.

That came in a dramatic race. Going through Redgate for the first time, three riders tumbled spectacularly bringing out the Audi Safety Car for two laps – Haslam held the edge, but on the fourth lap the Spaniard was ahead, and was not to be headed again.

Behind, Ryuichi Kiyonari was closing in, but the HM Plant Honda riders efforts were thwarted as the weather intervened. He was running little more than a tenth of a second down when the first few spots of rain brought the action to a premature halt - within minutes became a torrential downpour of rain, sleet and hail added to the misery.

Even after the red-flags had stopped the race several riders, among them former champion Shane Byrne, Michael Laverty and Jonathan Rea crashed out in the fast deteriorating conditions.

Byrne tumbled out again as he made his way around the circuit to the starting for the second race which began in difficult rain lashed going with first, Kiyonari, soon to crash out, Michael Rutter, then Karl Harris and Leon Haslam making the early running before Scott Smart took over, sure-footed aboard the Vivaldi Suzuki, on the fifth lap.

“Apart from a few anxious moments, I was fairly comfortable – in these conditions you have to be super-smooth. Be a little but too enthusiastic on the throttle and the bike was twitching.

“Once I was out front, there were no problems with the spray but over the last few laps my fingers had gone numb and it was just a case of hanging on and holding Haslam off on the final lap,” explained Smart as he enjoyed his fourth success and the first ever in the top flight for the Vivaldi team.

Haslam grabbed second place on the last lap from Lavilla, but the Spaniard is now 24 points clear of Kiyonari.

James Buckingham, the defending British Superbike Cup champion, took the first race honours, finishing ahead of Malcolm Ashley, Marty Nutt and Craig Sproston, but he had to settle for third best next time out as Chris Martin took the victory from Ashley.

Suzuki Report

Rizla Suzuki racers Shane ‘Shakey’ Byrne and James Haydon crashed out of both races at the second round of the Bennetts British Superbike Championship at Donington Park.

In the first race, Shakey was in fourth place and James in ninth when rain and hail started to fall. On slick tyres James crashed at the Old Hairpin and a minute later, Shakey high-sided at Schwantz at 140mph as the rain robbed the track surface of grip. The race was red flagged and taken back a lap with Shakey eventually being awarded fifth place behind winner Gregorio Lavilla on a Ducati.

In the second, event Shakey crashed out on the warm-up lap on a track covered in standing water. Haydon made a brilliant start from eighth to second but then went grass-tracking before rejoining well down the field. He crashed on lap two at Goddards and showed his determination when he rejoined the race before crashing again and retiring on lap nine at McCleans as he struggled to find grip in the wet conditions. Vivaldi Suzuki’s Scott Smart won the race.

Both Rizla Suzuki racers are battered and bruised after their crashes but have no serious injuries and are already looking forward to the third round of the Championship at Thruxton next weekend.

Shakey Byrne: “In the first race I suffered one of the biggest crashes of my career flat out in fifth gear going through the Schwantz curve. It had started to rain and the back end of the bike just came round and I went flying. It was a big crash and I am well bruised after that. The only consolation is the race was declared from a lap earlier and I was awarded fifth place.

“In the second race I went into Coppice on a closed throttle nice and steady on my out lap. The back end came round in slow motion and I couldn’t do anything about it and crashed out. I didn’t have a spare bike for race two after my first race crash and that was unfortunately the end of the day for me.”

James Haydon: “In the opening race the rain started to pour down and going into the Old Hairpin the back end slid away. I held it for what seemed like forever before it high-sided and I crashed out. It was a real shame because I was enjoying the race and the bike was handling better than ever.

“In the next race the wet and slippery conditions caught me out twice. The first time I remounted and was cutting back through the field towards the front when I crashed again and this time I couldn’t get restarted. It’s been a tough weekend and I hope the next round at Thruxton is dry.”

Robert Wicks - Team Manager: “It’s been a hard day at the races for Rizla Suzuki with five crashes in four race starts. The conditions were awful and played their part in causing those accidents and we will count our good fortune that both riders can walk away from Donington with minor bruising injuries and nothing more serious.

“This weekend we proved in the dry we have front running pace. That’s a step forward for us and we will take the positives from that to the next round at the team’s home circuit at Thruxton.

“Well done to Vivaldi Suzuki’s Scott Smart on taking victory in a dramatic and wet second race. Seeing a GSX-R1000 win is encouraging for all of us.”

Kawasaki Report

The Hawk Kawasaki riders Dean Thomas (33), Craig Coxhell (23) and Peter Hickman (19) experienced a difficult weekend at the second round of the British Superbike Championship at Donington Park on Sunday (9th April). With varying weather conditions throughout the weekend, race day was no better with wintry showers hitting the Leicestershire circuit.

Conditions were worse than they have ever been at a British Superbike meeting for the last five years and this effected the Hawk riders dramatically. Australian Coxhell qualified 10th, the best of the three riders with Thomas in 15th and Hickman 19th on the grid.

A huge crash into the first corner in the first race saw the safety car dispatched onto the circuit for three laps to enable the marshals to clear the debris. All the Hawk riders managed to avoid getting tangled up in the melee. Race one finished with Thomas in ninth, Coxhell in 11th and a DNF for Hickman.

Sheffield based Thomas gradually worked his way through the field from his 15th place start and maneuvered his way through to tenth. He became locked in a battle with Rizla Suzuki's James Haydon and Vivaldi rider Scott Smart. As Thomas and Haydon were side by side on the exit to Coppice Corner and with the rain just beginning to fall, the Rizla rider crashed out missing Hawk rider Thomas by inches.

Coxhell was running at a steady pace throughout the race still learning the Hawk Kawasaki and adjusting his riding style. Peter Hickman who celebrated his 19th Birthday on Saturday was running in a strong 14th position and lost the front end into Coppice, which saw an end to his chance of his first Superbike points.

The race was red flagged on lap 13 due to the increasingly bad weather conditions, with it rapidly getting worse as the day progressed. The second race was almost a wash out with 13 of the 29 riders crashing or retiring including Thomas and Coxhell. Hickman was the sole finisher for Hawk who finished just outside the points in 16th position, a very creditable position under the circumstances. It was later revealed that Craig Coxhell has a broken collarbone and will be fighting to get fit for the third round next weekend at Thruxton.

A disheartened Thomas said "I had to pull in from the second race as I had no rear grip what-so-ever. I'd already seen Craig crash and didn't fancy joining him. We had a 15-minute wet session before the second race and I suffered a pretty hefty crash in that, which has certainly left me feeling a little worse for wear. I was happy to have finished 9th in the first race but we have to sort some issues out with the bike before Thruxton."

Coxhell, who was certainly suffering in pain, was still upbeat saying "I was gutted to have crashed as I was up to 5th and had the front runners in my sight. I set two fastest laps, one after the other and I know that if I had stayed on then there was a good chance I would have been on the podium. I guess I was a little eager and the bike just came round on me and flung me over the bars. I landed heavily and had it confirmed that I have broken my collarbone. I'm gutted as we have a back-to-back weekend and I might have to miss the next round if it's not healed."

Rookie to the series Hickman said, "This certainly is the worst weather conditions that I have ever ridden in. The first race was a bit of a nightmare and I had a small off, I was determined that I just wanted to finish the second race in one piece. The conditions certainly didn't make that job very easy but I got there. I'm still enjoying it but it's very difficult, I was gutted not to have scored any points but hopefully it won't be too long coming now."

Paul Young

Paul Young played it safe on his Triumph Daytona 675 and came home in 16th place at the second round of the Metabo British Supersport Championship while conditions played havoc with other riders and the event race schedule.

He said: "It was more important for me to stay upright as we only have one bike and only three days between Donington and Thruxton. To be honest I felt it was a sad and sodden event. In fact I’ve never been to an event that was more abandonable! I would be interested to see what would cause a postponement now that the organisers have ITV coverage. Nuclear assault or terrorist activity only I reckon!"

The Hinckley based Aussie added: "I know it’s the same for everyone, but half the field in every race ended up in the kitty litter, it was a lottery and one I wasn’t prepared to buy a ticket for, so I went steady. I wanted to load the bike up in the van in one piece at the end of the weekend. I would have loved to score some championship points, and I usually go well in the rain, but pushing harder could have meant three days of repairs instead of three days working on improvements! At the moment developing the bike is the important thing."

With many of his rivals looking at bent and battered bikes on Monday morning, Youngy has spent his time on the dyno finding more power from the 675 triple for this weekend’s race. "I’ve found something useful on the dyno which means I'll have more horsepower for the race at Thruxton," explained Youngy. "The bike was feeling better at Donington and we’re getting more power out of it. Thruxton and Oulton Park are my two favourite circuits so I want to go there with the best bike I can and get some good results"