Beyond the Blade, Season 3 Episode 6 “Pathway to Success”
[MUSIC PLAYING] Welcome to the final race of the 2023 season, it is all to play for. Four months ago I wasn’t sure I was going to race again. I wanted to come back for me, to set myself up for 2024. They’re packed proud at Brands Hatch watching
My confidence is coming back. I’m by no means the finished article in racing. And, I’ve got a fire in my belly to prove everyone wrong and show what I’m capable of. [MUSIC PLAYING] Last time out at Donington Park, Andrew Irwin made his long-awaited return to Honda Racing
Due to some time on the sidelines because of his injury. We caught up with him at round 10 to talk about his road to recovery. [MUSIC PLAYING] Mate, first weekend back after a hard injury, and it’s a tough weekend of changeable weather. But on positives in the dry, you were one second off
The front guys. Yeah, you know, we have to look at it. We have got to take the positives from it. I’ve come back from four months without riding the bike. Friday and Saturday was really like a test. And we did within 0.7 – 0.8 of what I’ve done here before.
And yeah, I’ve got some limitations with my arms still. But do y’know, the races were difficult. Yesterday was a little bit mixed conditions. and I crashed. Probably had the wrong tires, it was my choice, and this is what I went for. I thought that it was going to dry up, it didn’t.
And today, once the rain started to come, I just didn’t want to take the risk. [MUSIC PLAYING] For us this weekend and Brands’ weekend is more of a test. We weren’t expecting to come back and challenge for podiums or lap records. It’s just about him getting comfortable on the bike again,
Knowing he can still ride a bike, knowing that he’s still got the strength in his arm to do it. So there was no expectations of him, no preconceptions about where we was going to finish or what we were going to do. We just wanted to see three chequered flags.
I’m happy with how I was in the dry. Disappointed with the race results. But.. 100% it’s not nice not to finish any races. Y’know to pull in two times. But we go to Brands Hatch in two weeks time. A track that I’ve been very strong at in the past.
And, it’s one that I’m really looking forward to riding the Honda at. I came second to it last year. And I think that we can go and be much closer to the front I’m not saying we’re going to be at the front.
But hopefully, take a step and be much closer to being there. [MUSIC PLAYING] The Pathway Fireblade made its first appearance this year in the 2024 class technical test at Oulton Park. Since then, Superstock riders Franco Bourne and Alex Olsen have both entered the Superbike category aboard a Honda Fireblade.
But what exactly is a pathway specification Superbike? Well, Chad sat down with Honda Racing boss Havuier Beltran to find out more about the bike. Let me introduce you to the Pathway Bike, a new set of regulations that are allowing more bikes onto the BSB grid.
It’s going to be a progression or a pathway for people to jump from Superstock to Superbike. And it’s not as complicated as you may think. So if you’ve already got your Superstock bike and you want to create a Pathway bike, you have to do one thing.
All you’ve got to do is fit the Motec electronics, because every bike in BSB runs Motec electronics, so it’s a level playing field. Then, as the name suggests, because it’s a pathway to BSB, you can change the bike depending on your budget, or how your rider feels, or what you want to change.
So you can change the master cylinder, you can change the brakes, you can change the swinging arm. It’s all down to budget. But the idea is that you essentially are already running your Superstock bike, you fit your Motec electronics, you create a Pathway bike,
And you join BSB, which gives you way more track time and puts you in front of the cameras, which is good for your sponsors. Round 10, Donnington Park. And just explain a little bit more about that pathway project because you’ve got Alex Olsen on the pathway, and Franco for this round.
Yes, for this round and for Brands Hatch. Now, the pathway, it is a stepping stone if you like, from the riders within Superstock into Superbike. Now, why we’re trying to help promote it this way is the Superbike’s a tough bike, a bit of a beast for the youngsters to ride.
And it’s that crossover that they come from a Superstock bike with all the feel and all the aids and the OEM electronics on all the bikes are pretty bloody good these days. We’ve seen it over the last four or five years that riders coming from Superstock, they have taken a number of years
To really push in Superbike. So the whole idea of it is of a younger rider or a younger team that’s funded and prepared to want to develop in Superbike, start off with a Pathway bike, and then as the season progresses, as the rider matures, as the rider gets
Feel, gets confident, start upgrading to the elements that you want to build your bike to. Alex, first weekend on the Pathway bike, are we close to a Superbike or are we close to a Superstock? At the minute, it’s more of a Stocker. We’ve got a master cylinder on it, but other than that,
It’s just a stocker that I’ve been riding all year It’s a million miles away from a Superbike. So yeah, the Pathway class is good. I think once the rules are confirmed what you can actually do, it’d be a good package to be on.
But at the minute, we just sort of jumped in at the deep end and put a master cylinder on it to make sure we could stop here because Donington Park is notorious for overheating the brakes. So yeah, it’s a steep learning curve, but it’s going well so far.
And I think with the pathway bike, I mean, the beautiful example of the ‘bike is easier to ride,’ is tricky conditions. Franco jumps on it, feels at home, and he just moved his way through the pack. I think that’s the key point here,
The fact is that they’ve got a great feel and confidence in the bike, and that enables them to push and keep going forward. Franco, you’ve gone from Superstock to Superbike, and now we’re on the Pathway bike, and you’ve just finished an incredible seventh in the wet.
So you seem to be at home on the Pathway bike. How is the difference? explain? Yeah, like I said, it’s been a bit of a funny year, really, up and down, different bikes. First session on that this weekend, I came in, I felt at home straight away.
Don’t know if it’s just my riding style, but I just feel really comfortable on that bike. Looking on pictures, my style is better, I’m hanging off the bike more. Obviously, with it being wet, I thought I could have a good opportunity to have a good result
With the way that the bike works, how soft it is, how much everything moves. So I was actually hoping for rain to be fair. Yeah, first lap went through, obviously made some good positions. I was up to nearly 10th, I think.
I thought, well, if it stays here, I’m happy, it’s my best result. Then, yeah, to finish, come across the line in sixth, over the moon, really happy. And why are you clicking so much with the new Pathway bike? What’s the difference between your Superstock bike and the Pathway bike that you’re on?
To be honest, it is very similar for me, almost exactly the same. I didn’t run any anti-wheelie or traction before, so it’s virtually the same with that on the Superstock bike. And then with the mapping, it’s been quite similar to the Superbike,
So I’ve had a chance to get to know that for the last few rounds. So I’ve been able to have quite a similar mapping, so I felt at home with it straight away, to be honest, because there was nothing that I didn’t know or that I hadn’t tried before.
Now it’s time to turn our attention from BSB to the National Superstock class. Seven different riders have all tasted victory aboard the Honda Fireblade. Remarkably, a Honda Fireblade has won all but one race. Superstock, that’s three championships on the trot. We’ve just come from the podium where Dan just sprayed us in champagne.
I mean, that just speaks volumes for the bike. Amazing. Again, this is all what we as a team have done to help support the other teams within Superstock Championship. Again, heavily supporting with the Optimum team and great result for Dan, fantastic result for the team.
I think it was seven or eight different Fireblades won this season. Exactly, and only a few points away from having a top three in the podium, you know, from overall one, two, three finish. So fair play to Richard Kerr and Joe Tolbert and the other riders in there,
Because it’s without them making that championship. You know, Billy’s been strong it’s just been, you know, a hell of a season, for them really. [MUSIC PLAYING] Harv we’re wrapping up 2023. I guess it’s fair to say it’s not the BSB season you would have hoped when we started.
No, far from it, Chad, really. You couldn’t have predicted that in any shape or form, really. Terrible injury for Andrew, missing the season. [MUSIC PLAYING] I’d say it’s the most mentally draining year I’ve had in my life. Testing went really good at the start of 23,
And I think we showed quite a lot of promise. The first round didn’t go as it should have, and then we bounced back at Oulton, we were competitive there, probably at the weakest track for this bike. And when you’re competitive there, you know that you can do a good job.
And things are going really good, starting to click, and in a really good place, and unfortunately, I got injured. [MUSIC PLAYING] I probably shouldn’t have came back if I had done what everybody wanted me to do, but I wanted to come back for me to set myself up for 2024.
That’s my goal, was never to come back and be fantastic now. It’s to build towards 2024. I know what I need to work on, and honestly, these results this weekend, I had a 13th, it’s nothing to shout home about, but four months ago I wasn’t sure If I’d race again.
I’m really, really motivated. All I can think about is 2024. I just want to forget about this year, but you learn from your bad years, that’s what I always say. Take everything that I’ve learnt from when I’ve not been racing, and watching it from a different perspective,
And yeah, let’s bounce back in 2024 in a strong way. Cool, man. It’s been a pleasure working with you. Thank you mate [MUSIC PLAYING] So ending in 23, mate, with a really strong performance again, like just busting through the grid, and I think you’ve got the award for the most overtakes.
I’ve won the award for ‘your crap at qualifying, but you always move forward in a race.’ So I may as well try to win something this year, so I’ll take that all day long. But no, I never give up till the end. It’s been a rollercoaster ride to say the absolute bare minimum.
But the last couple of rounds, I’ve started to sort of get back on track somewhat. I’ve not crashed in the last two rounds. I’ve finished every race in the points. Everyone can seem to get more out of an X than what I can, but once it–
Once it drops off, it’s like game on. I’m coming forward, and I did. And I got to the front, past Hicky, Kennedy, all them lads, and it was a good feeling. Never give in. Then when we focus on what we have done as a BSB team,
We’ve brought Franco through, given the opportunity for a young rider who, you know, a couple of rounds ago was in a top six, top seven. Yeah, you know, for sure. We’ve helped other teams. We’ve supported other teams, whether it’s in SuperStock or Superbike,
Given the opportunity to Franco to come and ride with us, learn, adapt. But next year, again, you know, we want to do that. We want to continue. We want to continue supporting other teams. But we need to be strong as a team. We need to be fighting for the podiums.
We need to chase the championship. And that’s going to be the main focus, I think, for next year. Cool. Thanks for letting me be a small part of it. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed it, and I’m looking forward to next year already. Thanks very much, Chad.
No, thank you for everything you’ve done. I appreciate it.
In this final episode of Beyond the Blade, we look back on the last two rounds of the 2023 Bennetts British Superbike Championship at Donington Park and Brands Hatch.
In a season that has been heavily disrupted by injury, Andrew Irwin discusses some of the challenges of his return to racing and how tricky conditions at Donington added to his difficulties.
Honda is also extremely proud to have assisted MSV in the development of their 2024 pathway regulations, designed to make entry to the Superbike class more accessible for new and existing teams. We learn exactly what is a pathway specification superbike and chat with pathway riders Alex Olsen – Cumins by Team IWR & Franco Bourne – Marvel HCL Motorsport.
We also reflect on a successful year of racing for Honda mounted riders in the Pirelli National Superstock series where seven different riders tasted victory aboard a Fireblade.
And finally, we reflect on the year with team boss Havier Beltran and riders, Andrew Irwin and Tom Neave.
00:00 Introduction
00:57 Andrew Irwin returns
02:54 Pathway Fireblade
07:57 Pirelli National Superstock Series
09:00 Reflecting on 2023
#HondaRacing #Fireblade #BeyondtheBlade #HondaMotorcycles #BSB #Superstock
