Buildbase Suzuki is set for the opening round of the 2022 Bennetts British Superbike Championship, which takes place this Easter weekend at Silverstone as Danny Kent returns alongside new recruit Christian Iddon.

For Kent it marks his return to racing following the serious hip injury he suffered at Donington Park in August last year, an injury that ruled him out of the second half of last season.

In addition to working with Loughborough University to increase his strength and mobility, the former Moto3 world champion has turned in a number of laps aboard a superstock-spec GSX-R over the winter to build his bike fitness.

However, bar the three-day test at Snetterton, he has not enjoyed much seat time aboard his Superbike, due to a rain and snow-affected Donington test and a positive Covid-19 test forcing him to miss last week’s Silverstone test. However he remains optimistic of a good weekend at a circuit both he and the Suzuki have previous form at.

Iddon will make his race debut with the Buildbase Suzuki team this weekend, and while he and the team still have work to do to get him comfortable on his new GSX-R1000R, he acknowledges that racing is different to testing.

Kent said: “I’m raring to go to be honest. It was frustrating to miss a lot of testing time but it is what it is, and I just want to get stuck into a race weekend. I think we can have a good weekend; we all know the bike has form around here and has been a winner.

“It’s also a circuit I enjoy, one I know well, and a circuit I’ve won at in my career, too. And even though it was 12 months ago, I went well in the test here last year, so we have reasons to be confident. The weather looks good, if we can hit the ground running in FP1, then I think we can get some good points on the board.”

Iddon said: “I’m looking forward to getting into a race scenario. We’ve still got work to do; the bike doesn’t quite feel like mine yet, but racing is different to testing. You’re still trying when you’re testing, but I just feel more comfortable in a race situation.

“We’d have liked a bit more of a pre-season but we’re where we probably expected to be. On one hand it’s good that Silverstone is round one because we know the bike goes well here, so it can help us have a good weekend even if the bike isn’t quite where we want it to be, but on the other it’d be nice to be coming here once we’re fully dialled in.

“The forecast looks a lot better than it was for the test, so hopefully we can have productive practice sessions and three good races.”