Rory Skinner clung onto third at Donington Park as Danny Kent “didn’t make that easy”

Rory Skinner had not graced a British Superbikes podium since his home round at Knockhill, four rounds ago, where he improved one place every time out on track to go from third to winning the third and final race.

Since then results have been hard to come by for the Cheshire Mouldings team, failing to build on that success on the Ducati, with their next best results being two sixth places at Brands Hatch.

• 2025 British Superbikes: Donington Park - Race Results (1)
• 2025 British Superbikes: Donington Park - Qualifying Results

That meant the rider from Perth was incredibly happy to see a turnaround for himself and his team for the return to Donington Park, with a hard earned third place:

“A few tough rounds, won’t lie, It’s not been exactly how we planned, and to reward the guys with a podium in the first race here at Donington Park, I’m super happy with it.”

After initially going with the lead two, Skinner had pressure from the chasing group, at one point in a four with Andrew Irwin and Bradley Ray as race winner Scott Redding and Kyle Ryde escaped up front, but it was Danny Kent’s relentless attempts to pass at the Old Hairpin which kept Skinner on his toes, as he explained:

“Danny Kent didn’t make that easy for me. I had felt I had a lot of moments straight form the start, and from there it was almost as much defending what to was to push to try and catch Scott and Kyle, but yeah, happy to bring it home in third in the end.”

The red flag for fellow countryman John McPhee, who was thrown from his Honda after smoke then liquid from the rear off his bike saw him exit was advantageous for the #11, who was not sure he could have kept the Yamaha behind much longer, with the race declared a lap early:

“Obviously the red flag came out at the end, which maybe helped me a little bit. I’d say it definitely helped me in my favour a bit there at the end, but hey, we got a job done.”

Looking ahead with three more chances to stand on the rostrum, Skinner is hoping for more podium action on Sunday:

“First podium of the weekend so far, so try to carry that on for tomorrow.”