The Honda Racing team were back in action yesterday (Monday) for the first time since March, as Bennetts BSB contenders Andrew Irwin, Glenn Irwin, Tom Neave and Davey Todd headed out on track at Cadwell Park aboard the all-new Honda CBR1000RR-R Fireblade SP.

The shakedown test at the team’s home track was the first time the Honda Racing crew and riders were back in action since the enforced delay and they wasted no time in getting reacquainted with the Fireblade before the official Bennetts BSB test later this month at Donington Park.

Completing a total of 279 laps of the Lincolnshire circuit, and despite some intermittent weather conditions, it was a positive and productive day for Honda’s Superbike and Superstock 1000 contenders.

The Honda Racing team will return to the track at Snetterton in just over a week’s time for another private test, before wrapping up testing at the official test at the end of the month, ahead of the season opener at Donington Park on August 7/8/9.

Andrew Irwin said:

"It was nice to finally ride the bike at Cadwell! It has been a while since we last rode so I was definitely rusty for the first few laps, but once I got back into the swing of things it felt natural again. The team really made big steps yesterday, it's only really our second test with the all-new Fireblade since we tested in Spain in March, we took it step-by-step and the bike just keeps getting better and better and the team is working really hard to give us a competitive package. I am looking forward to the next test and continuing the development with the bike to be ready for Round 1 - I can't wait to get there!"

Glenn Irwin said:

"It was good to get out on the new bike yesterday at Cadwell Park, I was really rusty in the first session. I don't know if it's down to riding so much motocross and playing on our mini-bikes, but it was hard even to get the knee down at the beginning! No, all joking aside, it came nice and we did lots of work throughout the day testing new components and we had a lot of things to try, it was good to dive back in. I enjoyed myself and enjoyed riding my motorcycle again, and I look forward to our next test and getting back to working on the new Honda Fireblade."

Team Manager Havier Beltran commented:

“It was great getting back on track yesterday, and with no Cadwell Park sadly on the calendar for the revised BSB season, it felt right we paid our home-track a visit.

“It’s been a long time since we were all together at the start of March and early on you could see that all the hard work the team put in before and after lockdown has really paid off. We have the all-new Fireblade SP for this season and with any new machine there’s a lot of learning and development to be done and hats off to the team for getting us to where we are today. We still have a lot to learn, but I’m hopeful that once we get to Round 1, we’ll be in a fairly strong position, but we do have to be realistic and walk before we can run.”