TODD DOMINATES 2025 MACAU GRAND PRIX

Davey Todd dominated the 2025 Macau Grand Prix last weekend, asserting his authority on the Chinese road race from the opening practice session to the drop of the chequered flag aboard the Zeeco BMW M1000RR. Todd’s teammate, Peter Hickman, finished second, 10.021 seconds behind as Finland’s Erno Kostamo completed the podium on his Racing for Inclusion by RVS BMW, a further 16 seconds back.

Initially the 12 lap race had been planned to take place on Saturday morning in the mixed car and motorcycle event around the skyscraper-lined 3.8 mile Guia course on the streets of Macau city. This year’s bike race schedule had been tweaked with a 45 minute reduction in track time leaving just one hour of free practice on Thursday morning and a 60 minute qualifying run on Friday morning.

Heavy overnight rain forced the organisers to postpone the Friday session until 7am on Saturday morning with the race scheduled to start at 9am, leaving the mechanics and riders just an hour to make final adjustments before the race began.

Unfazed by the disruption, Todd, who qualified over 1.5 seconds quicker than Kostamo, stormed into what became a start to finish lead over his teammate and the Finnish rider in a race run in perfect conditions.

“It was great (to win) and it was actually borderline a little bit of a boring race,” Todd said.

“I was really looking forward to a battle with my team-mate and I knew Erno would be fast in the race as well. I just got away on the first lap and tried to get my head down. I know we had some strong pace in qualifying, but the race is always a different thing. Also, I knew that Pete would be strong at the end of the race because I know he likes the Dunlop tyres that he’s on, and he always comes strong.’

Such was the 30 year old’s pace that he lapped just 0.1 seconds slower than Stuart Easton’s lap record on a PBM Kawasaki that has stood since 2010.

‘The only thing I’m disappointed about is that I didn’t realise we’d got so close to the lap record.’ Todd, who has already notched up impressive victories at the North West 200 and TT during 2025, explained.

‘I felt like I was riding away off the lap record pace but because it was so close I’m disappointed. I wish I knew the lap time and I’d have pushed a little bit to get it. But we’re not here for lap records, we’re here to win races and we did just that, so I’m really proud of all of mine and Peter’s 8TEN Racing Team by Zeeco BMW here at Macau.’

Behind Todd his teammate was struggling with a gearshift issue which eventually cleared itself as Hickman became locked in a battle with Kostamo that he said had spooked him.

‘To be honest I got a little bit scared.’ Hickman, who is still recovering from his huge TT 2025 practice crash, emphatically explained during the post-race press conference.

‘I like Erno a lot, he’s a great rider but unfortunately he got a little bit excited on the first two laps, made a lot of really big mistakes and was really fortunate to get away with it. It scared me more than anything and I rolled right off because around here we have no room and if he’d gone down, I’d have gone down with him.’

That caution destroyed any chance the four-time Macau GP winner might have had of taking the battle to his teammate.

‘I backed off a little bit and when Erno went straight on at Lisboa that gave me a clear track but at that point Davey was probably four seconds up the road or something.’ Hickman explained.

‘He was a long, long way away.’