The DAO Racing Honda team wrapped up their opening test of the 2026 ZYN British Superbike Championship season at Monteblanco with both Josh Brookes and Lee Jackson finishing the two-day test feeling positive about the direction ahead of the next test.
The pair had tested different engine specifications along with a selection of different parts, with Brookes feeling happier after the second day on track in Spain, whilst Jackson despite losing some time in the afternoon session, was feeling consistent. The team now move to Andalucía for a further two days on track next week before returning to the UK for the R&G Official Tests at Donington Park (April 3/4) and Oulton Park (April 21/22).
Brookes said: “The day has been a lot more positive, immediately the engine we ran with today was far more to my liking. It wasn’t instantly quicker, it was a feeling of confidence and the understanding of where the torque and the power was, that give me to focus on and work with and then we could work on other changes from there. We worked up until lunchtime, making more like race weekend changes, but we stuck to the programme of changes we wanted to make and the lap time improved and we ended up with a 35.2, I don’t think that is where we need to be, but that’s at least an improvement on yesterday.
“After lunch we went a but wayward; we tried some changes from the results we had before lunch, which didn’t have the return that we needed, so we finished the day a little bit outside of the window. But there is still positive energy around after the pre-lunch progress we made, so that wraps up Monteblanco and now we have days off before we are on track at Andalucía.”
Jackson said: “We made some good changes and got through some data that we had been working on overnight, with a new engine for me on the second day with a slightly different configuration. It was a day of two halves on day two; in the morning, we got in quite a lot of laps and a lot of data, and then in the afternoon we got hit with a sticky situation with some forks that put us out for a while when we needed the track time.
“It has been a good test though and good to be back on the bike; I didn’t go as fast as I thought I could have on day two, I matched my time but I was happy with race pace and race runs with the consistency so that was an improvement. There is still a little bit more to find but we have another two days on track so we should be ready for when we come back to England.”