After breaking his foot in five places last time out at Oulton Park, Ben Currie was officially ruled out of the third round at Donington Park.
Hector Barbera, a former runner up in both the 125cc and 250cc classes, was called up to stand in for the injured Australian, getting the call up from Pete Extance at the end of last week.
The Spaniard impressed right from the start of the weekend as he put his Kawasaki in fourteenth in Free Practice one. He was ahead of big names such as Tommy Bridewell, Glenn Irwin and Danny Buchan. Free Practice two was more of the same for Barbera, improving his lap times and once again impressing the Bennets British Superbike paddock. Barbera ended Free Practice 2 in fifth, setting a time that was just +0.310s off Keith Farmer’s top time.
In the Datatag Extreme Qualifying, the JG Speedfit Kawasaki rider would make it to Qualifying 3 and secured himself eighth place for the opening race of the weekend.
Hector Barbera had a strong race one, fighting amongst the well-known stars of British Superbikes, ultimately ending the race in sixth overall. Race two was more of the same, pulling off strong moves and having some great battles with the leading group but, in the end, dropped off when the rain started falling and finished eighth overall. However, with his great ride in race two, Hector had secured himself his first pole position in British Superbikes thanks to his fastest lap during the previous race.
Starting from pole position, Barbera enjoyed a good launch from pole and slotted into third place, with Josh Brookes in fourth. Brookes then made a big lunge at McLeans, locking the front up and having to run wide, taking Barbera with him.
Barbera was forced to drop down to eighth on the opening lap with work to do. He kept in contention of the podium throughout the opening few laps of the race. However, with ground to makeup, he got too excited down into Old Hairpin and slid off his Kawasaki, resulting in a non-finish to end what was a brilliant weekend.
