Steve Martin will start form the fourth row of the grid for tomorrow’s World Superbike races at Donington in the UK, after being hampered by electrical problems with both of his Honda CBR1000 race bikes throughout the day.

Steve commented, “We came here with the bikes exactly as we left them from Phillip Island due to the uncertainty the team faced over the last few weeks with financial issues, and unfortunately, both of my bikes have developed niggling electrical problems which have hampered our progress the last two days.”

The cool and damp weather conditions of yesterday’s first free practice and qualifying sessions saw Steve’s DFX Honda crew make significant changes to his Phillip Island bike setting, but as the track dried, further setting alterations were required.

Steve explained, “We’ve had to make a number of changes to the bike’s set-up, but due to the manner of the engine power delivery we’re constantly having to make compromises between the engine and chassis set up. So we never seem to get a full package with all the elements working together and we’re having to ride around the problems at the moment.

“Due to this, the good base setting we found at Phillip Island is sadly not able to be used here as there are too many other things to put into the equation.

“Going into Superpole I was 14th and I’m in that same position now on the grid tomorrow which is disappointing as I had hoped to be able to gain a few places. But I had to switch to my number two bike for Superpole and that also kept cutting in and out so I just couldn’t improve my time.

"But tomorrow is another day and I'm optimistic as always that we can get things working better and that I can battle my way up the field," Steve concluded.

The DFX team will now work on Steve’s bikes overnight to establish and hopefully resolve the causes of the day’s problems, to provide Steve with the best chance of working his way through the field in tomorrow’s races.