Full strength for Binch Racing at Donington Park
Mansfield-based Binch Racing's National Supersport Championship weekend at Donington Park proved a landmark moment as the team was able to field both riders on their Yamaha R6 Supersport machines for the first time.
Alistair Seeley produced a ninth and an 11th while Oliver Barr, on his National Supersport debut, had finishes of 20th and 23rd.
Seeley left Donington sixth in the Championship with still plenty more to come and heading in the right direction.
In qualifying Seeley secured P7 for the group and P14 on the grid for the race with which he and the team were a little disappaointed.
But Barr did a fantastic job to automatically qualify for the race, negating the need to take part in the 'last chance qualifier' with 55 competitors in the class and only 38 automatically qualifying (top 19 from each group) and two more get through from the LCQ race.
He ended the session in P18, P36 on the grid.
By his own admission, he could have gone quicker but he felt a little tense, which was understandable on his debut.
The Saturday 12 Lap Sprint Race saw both made great starts.
Seeley is a master of his craft and his patience paid off on lap three as he set his fastest lap of the weekend with a 1.31.32.
That 0.5 of a second would improve Binch's grid position for Sunday's race so now he could concentrate on his overtakes and did just that to finish P11.
The BSB paddock welcomed three world supersport wildcards to compete with Binch in Can Oncu, Tom Booth-Amos and Ondrej Vostatek, so discounting their positions it was technically a P8 for Seeley.
Barr had some real fun in his first ever National Supersport race.
He really enjoyed battling hard with a number of his fellow competitors and he admitted he got a little too excited in parts and could have been quicker.
That said, on the penultimate lap, similar to Seeley, he recorded his fastest lap of the weekend with a 1.32.65 which was an improvement of 1.35 secs.
Conditions were glorious for the Sunday 18 lap Feature Race.
Both Binch riders' grid positions were better for this race as they had both improved their lap times during the sprint race. Seeley started from P11 with Barr going from P23.
An initial red flag saw a reduced 15 lap race and a 15 minute delay.
Seeley battled really hard and impoved yet again by two race places to finish P9.
Barr had his elbows, knees and neck out lap after lap. He was taking places and losing a few as the intensity on track increased.
Despite being a little upset with his race when he returned to Parc Ferme, he progressed three race places at the chequered flag to P20 on his debut.
The next round after the Isle of Man TT break will see the team in Barr's back yard at Knockhill on 14th-16th June.