Jack Kennedy encouraged by Honda Supersport engine progress

Reigning British Supersport Champion Jack Kennedy says he has “a good margin” over the field after the first official test of 2025 in Navarra.

Kennedy, who won the 2024 Supersport title in the CBR600RR’s first year back in the British Championship after it was reintroduced to European markets by Honda at the end of 2023, spent much of last year feeling as though he was making up for a lack of straight line performance in the corners. Improvements in engine performance, then, were a welcome development for Kennedy in the Spanish tests.

“We have a fair few upgrades on the 2025 CBR600RR,” Kennedy said.

“Honda has been extremely busy during the winter, which is so motivating because no one is resting on their laurels of winning the championship last year.

“Each upgrade that we have put into the bike has been positive which doesn't always happen in truth, but everything that we tried has been positive which is allowing me to ride the bike even harder than I did last year, would you believe.”

Such was Kennedy’s positivity about the 2025 version of the Supersport-spec CBR600RR that he finished the final day of the Navarra test an hour early.

“We’ve made big steps in all of the key areas, the chassis is improved and we have made a step with the engine,” he said.

“We even decided to finish an hour early today because we have completed our program and we are in a really good spot.

“We have a good margin over everyone else here at the test in both hot and cool conditions which I am obviously delighted about.

“We head to Donington with the focus of confirming that all of these positive changes are correct at a track that we know.”