19/05/2026
ROUND 2, DONINGTON PARK RACE REPORT
Round 2 of the season was plagued by constantly changing weather conditions, making the race tricky with it swapping from wet to dry in a matter of minutes. We also had two guests on the grid with Josh for the race, Joe and Josh dressed as Elvis after they were auctioned off to wear the outfits on the grid to raise money for Our Dementia Choir.
After the first two practice sessions on Friday Josh sat P4 in the combined times, with a fastest lap of 1:36.124. Harrison finished practice in P12 having set his fastest lap of 1:37.197, with Fin rounding us out in P16 with a fastest lap of 1:37.539.
Our first session on Saturday was a third practice session, with the rain starting to come down after a few laps. Fin opted to pull in after a couple of laps when the conditions worsened, but Josh and Harrison stayed out. Josh finished the session P4, with a fastest lap of 1:32.960 and Harrison sat P18 having set his fastest lap of 1:34.801.
After having sketchy conditions for practice, the heavens opened and qualifying saw wet conditions. This made the session trickier and Harrison suffered with a misted visor, making it tough to get in some good laps. Halfway through the session Josh clipped the white line into Redgate and crashed out. Thankfully it wasn’t too bad, but he wasn’t able to finish out the session. When the chequered flag came out, Fin put it on P13 with a fastest lap of 1:42.352. Josh would start from P19, having set his fastest lap of 1:43.544, with Harrison starting from P24 after setting a fastest lap of 1:44.076.
The race initially got underway at 14:45 with all three riders having decent starts. A couple of laps into the race saw the Safety Car come out, neutralising the race. On the second lap of the Safety Car it began to rain, seeing a red flag come out and the riders pull into pitlane. The race restart was subsequently declared a wet race. Despite the restart being declared wet, the rain had stopped and the track was still relatively dry, so they took to the track for two sighting laps. On the first sighting lap the rain started again, this time heavier than before. Josh and Fin made the decision to pit and swap out tyres. Both Josh and Fin went for a wet front and dry rear whilst Harrison opted to stay on dry tyres and lined up on the grid with 10 others. Due to the others changing tyres, the rest of the grid started from pitlane. After the first lap of the restart Fin pulled into the pits and retired, with the gamble on tyres not having paid off. It was a tentative first few laps with rain falling and stopping, giving way to a dry rest of the race. Both Josh and Harrison fought well, trying to gain back what positions they could. Josh took the chequered flag in P16 and Harrison came home in P18. Josh’s fastest lap of the race was a 1:35.502 and Harrison’s was a 1:32.940.
After a chaotic second round of the season Josh sits P12 in the Championship. We made the best of a bad situation and now look to rest and reset in the month we have off, before going again at Knockhill for round 3 on the 19th - 21st June.
Crosby Racing: “We started the weekend pretty strong and were quite happy with it. After not coming here for the test we were a bit on the back foot. We weren’t too far off and had some things to work on for qualifying. In FP3 we had a few things we wanted to try but weren’t able to due to the drizzle, despite this I stayed out for the full session anyway. Qualifying proved tricky in the wet conditions and paired with a misted visor, made it hard to push and get some fast times in. Warm up was positive and I hoped the race was going to be the same conditions, and it was. After the red flag I started from a grid of 10 people and lacked a bit of confidence at the start on the dry tyres, so people were coming past on wets. By the end of the race my lap times would’ve put me P8, based on fastest laps. It’s not where I want to be but from both the first and second round things are going in the direction we want and we’re getting stronger, it's just not showing in position yet. Massive thanks to the team and sponsors for this weekend.”
Finley Arscott: “Overall it’s been somewhat good and I've made a step in not just my riding, but also in my confidence. Despite ending Friday in P15, we were close in terms of times and worked on getting the enjoyment back after Oulton. In Qualifying we made another step forwards and were P13 which I was happy with. Coming into the race, it wasn’t amazing. I started off okay and somewhat held my position, but when my brake started coming to the bar I started to lose a bit of confidence and started to go backwards. The rain started so we pulled in after a red flag and weren’t sure what to do for tyres. I put a wet front in and that was the wrong decision, so I opted to retire as the risk outweighed the reward in this case. Thanks to all my sponsors who came up, along with the team for everything they’ve done.”
Josh Owens: “It’s not been the best weekend as we struggled a bit with the head not being quite in the right place, but we made the best of it. In qualifying I made a mistake in hitting the white line round Redgate, causing me to crash out and lose half of the session. I shouldn’t be making those mistakes at my level. We started from P19 on the grid and knew in the race I had to throw everything at it. However, the conditions didn’t want to behave and it kept raining and stopping. I took the gamble of putting a wet front in hoping it wouldn’t dry up, but it did quite fast. With swapping the tyre I had to start from pitlane but I finished P16, one place shy of a point. Hopefully Knockhill is one condition or the other, and we’ll come back stronger.”
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