“A few teething issues” on first Superbike day for Davey Todd at Oulton Park BSB test
Davey Todd’s “first impressions were really good” despite “teething issues” on his first day aboard his BMW M1000 RR Superbike.
After a complicated preseason through a last minute team change, Davey Todd was finally able to ride the Superbike-spec 8Ten Racing BMW M1000 RR at the recent Oulton Park BSB test, and the bike made a positive “first impression”.
Todd was 21st-fastest of the BSB riders on the combined times at the Oulton Park test, with his best time actually coming on his own Superstock-spec BMW on day one. He got to within a tenth of that time in the final session of the second day with the Superbike, which is indicative of the margin he has to improve.
“Finally out on the Superbike today,” Todd said at the end of the second day of the Oulton Park test.
“The 8Ten team have been working super-hard the last couple of months to make this happen, fighting a lot of obstacles. The guys have had I think a lot of sleepless nights, they’ve been working super-hard to put this all together.
“It was so nice to finally get out on a Superbike today that the guys have been working so hard to prepare.
“It was great, it was a fantastic start to get out on it; we had to get over a few teething issues as you always do with a new bike, and that was the main reason we desperately wanted it [at the Oulton Park test].
“First impressions were really good. I’ve not got a whole lot of experience with Motec so that was the biggest thing to learn for me.
“But first impressions of that 2025 BMW Superbike is it’s a flying machine; it’s definitely fast, the chassis feels good, I just need a bit more time on it.”
Despite the lack of time on the Superbike compared to his rivals, Todd said he feels “ready to go racing”.
“I’m always ready to go racing, but honestly we could really do with another couple of months of testing like everyone else has had rather than the one day that I’ve had and the zero days that Pete’s [Peter Hickman] had,” he said.
“But we’re in this situation, nothing we can do, we can’t turn back time and, even if we could, the boys have done all they can to get this ready in time.
“It is what it is and we’ll make the best of the situation when we turn up to round one next weekend and do our best.
“We’ve got a busy month with two BSB rounds, North West [200], and [Isle of Man] TT, so it’s going to be mental.”
Alex joined the Crash.net team in August of 2024 having covered consumer and racing motorcycle news at Visordown for two years.
