Danny Kent sets 2025 BSB expectations: “We want to fight for the championship”

Having won Race 1 at the final round of the 2024 British Superbike Championship at Brands Hatch, Danny Kent comes into this season with increased expectations and an adjusted mindset for 2025.

The 31-year-old has been the only Yamaha rider in BSB to have a smooth winter, given the late disruptions to the off-seasons of Kyle Ryde and Bradley Ray who were directly affected by the issues for OMG Racing, but the goals for the 2025 season were already raised last October.

“Before going into last year and I didn’t count myself as an every week front runner, whereas [in the 2024 season] I proved that [I am],” Kent told Crash.net between the penultimate and final sessions at the Donington test.

“We finished fourth in the championship last year, and it’s only natural that we want to improve. So, we want more wins and we want to fight for the championship.”

The #52 had two bikes to try in Donington, which he said had “completely different” chassis settings and geometry.

“We’re running two bikes here to try to get through our test plan a bit quicker,” Kent said.

“The geometry and the chassis settings on the two bikes are completely different, so we’re just trying to find the direction that we want to go in for 2025.

“I feel like we know what direction we want to go [in], and now we’re just spending time trying to understand the new tyre that we’ve got for 2025 as well.

“The feeling with the team is really good, the feeling with the bike is getting better, so I’m feeling confident.”

Kent ended the test fourth-fastest overall on the combined times, 0.512 seconds adrift of Glenn Irwin’s lap record set in the third and final session of day two.

The McAMS Racing Yamaha rider said that he was strong in the flowing parts of the Donington layout, but was losing out in the final sector.

“I wouldn’t say I need to improve anything on the bike, it’s more myself,” he said.

“Sectors [one-to-four] I’m just as fast if not faster, but then I lose half-a-second in sector five which is a 22-second sector, which is really bad.

“But in that last session [the second session of day two] I managed to improve it. It’s something that I need to change in my riding style.”

He added: “One of the easiest sectors seems to be the one I’m losing the most [in], but looking at the data I know where I need to improve.”