Matt Truelove rounded out what was a challenging weekend for the TAG Racing Honda team at Donington Park in style, securing second place and a first podium of the 2026 season in Sunday’s Pirelli National Superstock Championship race. Charlie Nesbitt and Fraser Rogers suffered a torrid weekend with five DNFs from three races, whilst Jaimie Van Sikkelerus was forced to retire following Friday’s free practice action due to his ongoing recovery from injury.
Following a positive set of free practice sessions on Friday, where Nesbitt and Rogers worked hard alongside their teams to refine the Honda CBR1000RR-R SP Fireblade package, ‘Spud’ progressed directly into Saturday’s second qualifying session, whilst Rogers was left to fight it out in Q1.
Truelove enjoyed a positive time on track, finishing the combined free practice sessions inside the top three of the standings, and felt confident ahead of Saturday’s qualifying session.
Truelove qualified seventh on the grid after a rain-affected session saw the Lincolnshire man end the 20-minute fight for pole frustrated, but focused on battling hard in the single 15-lap scrap on Sunday afternoon.
After qualifying 13th and 18th respectively, Nesbitt and Rogers were determined to achieve solid results from their opening 18-lap race on Saturday afternoon. However, due to technical issues, the pair were forced to retire from the race on laps three and eight.
Following an evening of hard work and changes to the Fireblade, the team were confident of achieving positive results in all three races across Sunday.
From the lights on Sunday afternoon, Truelove made a fantastic start and held seventh after the opening set of laps. However, rain then began to fall on lap five, which forced the organisers to red-flag the race.
Although not enough to force a tyre change for Truelove, the race was declared wet as per the regulations, but ‘Truey’ gambled on dry tyres and ultimately the gamble paid off. From the seven-lap restart, he made his way to the front, leading after the opening lap, and became embroiled in a race-long battle within a group of four. He swapped paint with Declan Connell, David Allingham and Simon Reid.
He would brave it out and, after dropping back to third, made his way back ahead of Connell with two laps to go before going in search of Allingham, who led the way. Midway through the final lap, Matt made a small mistake which forced him to concede victory, and despite doing all he could to hold off a charging Connell, he crossed the line in second place to secure his first podium of the 2026 season.
However, it would be an even more frustrating day for the Gloucestershire-based pair of Nesbitt and Rogers, with ‘Spud’ taking 14th place in the early 12-lap sprint race and Fraser suffering a DNF after a crash at turn one at the start of the second lap.
The third and final race of the weekend saw the duo both make errors, with Rogers once again crashing out at turn one as he looked to make ground on the field, whilst Nesbitt suffered a high-speed crash on the fourth lap.
Thankfully, both riders sustained only minor injuries and are already focusing on a positive return when action roars back into life in four weeks’ time at Knockhill in Scotland.
Following Friday’s free practice sessions, the team, alongside Jaimie Van Sikkelerus, made the decision to withdraw the Dutchman from the weekend due to his ongoing recovery from the injury sustained in a winter training accident. Jaimie will now head back to the Netherlands to continue his rehab and focus on a return to action at Knockhill in four weeks’ time.
Charlie Nesbitt: “I don’t have a lot to say really, other than I’m sorry to the whole team. It’s been a strange weekend. I felt good in Friday free practice and Saturday qualifying, but then the races were just my fault and I’ve got to learn from them. I’m making too many mistakes and it’s cost us badly. I want to say sorry to the team — they work so hard for me and I want to ensure this stops happening. I’m a little bit battered after the crash, I took a big hit, but thankfully I’m not too badly hurt. The break will do me good and I plan to come back stronger at Knockhill.”
Fraser Rogers: “I have no words, to be honest. I came into this weekend feeling confident we’d be able to fight hard within the top ten after our pre-season test here, but it just hasn’t happened. I’ve struggled all weekend and the two mistakes in Sunday’s races were my own fault, and for that I have to say sorry to the team and all the sponsors. I’ll regroup now and come back stronger at Knockhill. I have amazing memories there and I want to replicate that.”
Matt Truelove: “I’m delighted to get on the podium, not just for myself but for the whole team. Straight away on Friday we were fast, I felt comfortable from the first free practice and I knew we’d be strong. I was slightly frustrated after qualifying — I expected better, but the conditions made it difficult for me. The red flag did help me out, but sometimes you need a little bit of luck and maybe that was our repayment for what happened on Saturday in qualifying. All in all I’m delighted. I felt the win was on the cards, but I wanted to ensure we came away with silverware. It’s a long season and after this weekend I truly believe we’re in the fight for this championship.”
Team manager Gary Winfield: “To round out what has been a tricky weekend with a podium is a brilliant feeling. It’s given everyone a lift and a big shoutout to Matt for riding so well all weekend. To get on the podium at our home race, in front of many key sponsors, is fantastic. I don’t want to dwell too much on the negatives of the weekend, but it’s fair to say things aren’t going our way in the Superbike class at the moment. However, we have a good break from the action now to regroup and reassess ahead of our return to Knockhill.”
Matt Truelove now sits third in Pirelli National Superstock standings on 36 points, just 14 shy of the leader. Fraser Rogers sits 18th in the ZYN British Superbike standings on three points, with team mate Nesbitt one behind on two.
