On the weekend of the 16th of March our Barrett Steel Racing team (in reduced numbers / Rider Liam Dale and two assistants) headed to Donington Park Round 1 with the Pirelli superseries 1000cc. No spectators are allowed to attend races until after the 17^th May the team found running these large events behind closed doors without the usual support of the full team, family, friends and sponsors a little strange.

Our Barrett Steel Constructional Account Manager and rider Liam Dale said "Our biggest buzz about what we do is that we travel in large numbers and are all in this together."

The grid was extremely strong this weekend as a handful of British riders had dropped on for some early testing before the British superbike season commenced. Unfortunately the team didn’t make it out for qualifying on Saturday due to unforeseen technical issues which meant they would need to start Sundays races from the back of the grid. 

When the races came around the team were ready for race one. The other 40 riders lined onto the grid and Barrett Steel Racing lined up in 41^st place.

Liam commented on race one "The lights went out and we were starting the warm up lap to ensure maximum heat is kept in the tyres before the official race start. Couple of minutes later we lined back up for the race start itself. Out went the lights and we had a blistering start straight up into 27^th position by the 2^nd corner.

We got into sector three of the track and all of a sudden lost complete power, there was a strong smell which pointed straight towards the clutch. Unfortunately we had to retire from the first race after lap one due to the failed clutch." 

On Sunday the Barrett Steel team had a new clutch in place and they were ready for race two of the weekend. 

Due to missing qualifying and a rider injury the team began race two in 40th on the grid. The lights went out and the team had a cracking start once again with Liam putting the bike into 29^th after the first few corners.

After a gruelling 32 mile, 14 lap race the team crossed the line with a new personal best time of a 1.13 and in a strong 20^th position considering the team started from the back of the grid.

Although there were some technical issues this weekend Liam commented that "We left this weekend on a high and ready to start the preparation for Round 2 at Oulton Park 30^th April."

As always the team would like to say thank you to all their loyal sponsors who have stood by Barrett Steel Racing through thick and thin.

Head to www.barrettsteelracing.com if you wish to sign up to their monthly newsletter and find out more about the team. Once the tracks are open for spectators the team would like to invite Barrett Steel customers to support their race weekends so please contact your local sales team for more details on tickets and hospitality. 

For all Barrett Marketing enquiries please contact marketing@barrettsteel.com