Ryde delivers at Donington Park with race one victory.
Kyle Ryde claimed the opening British Superbike Championship race win of the weekend at his home round of Donington Park as the defending champion refused to settle in his quest for a historic third title, taking victory from Ryan Vickers and Bradley Ray.
At the start of the race, Ryde had had dropped down to fifth off the line on the opening lap as Ray snatched the lead from Vickers and Scott Redding.
Cook was into fifth by the second lap and then attacked Ryde to move ahead on the AJN Steelstock bimota, but the reigning champion wasn’t giving an inch and he reclaimed the position just a few corners later.
A lap later and Ryde was pushing to make his next move, this time on his closest title rival Redding; first attempting a move at the Fogarty Esses. The Hager PBM Racing Team rider was defending hard but at the Melbourne Loop, he made the move stick, with the pair making contact.
Vickers had stolen the lead from Ray on the fourth lap, but behind Ryde was closing down after making another move on Bradley Ray with a decisive pass into Coppice. The championship leader then had the Honda Racing UK contender ahead of him and he again wasn’t prepared to settle for anything less than victory in front of his home crowd.
Ryde then executed another determined move for the lead, passing Vickers into Schwantz and then kept the Honda Racing UK rider behind him with a sequence of rapid laps to bridge the gap in the closing stages.
Vickers celebrated a podium return in second place ahead of Ray, whilst Redding just missed out on the podium in fourth place as Max Cook completed the top five on the AJN Steelstock bimota.
Leon Haslam overcame issues from earlier in the weekend to claim sixth place, just ahead of Danny Kent and Storm Stacey with Joe Talbot and Christian Iddon completing the top ten.
British Superbike Championship, Donington Park, Race 1 result:
- Kyle Ryde (Nitrous Coin Nitrous Competitions Racing)
- Ryan Vickers (Honda Racing UK) +1.260s
- Bradley Ray (McAMS Yamaha) +4.440s
- Scott Redding (Hager PBM Ducati) +6.081s
- Max Cook (AJN Steelstock bimota) +7.777s
- Leon Haslam (Moto Rapido Racing) +17.126s
- Danny Kent (Cheshire Mouldings Yamaha) +18.143s
- Storm Stacey (Bathams AJN Racing Ducati) +22.570s
- Joe Talbot (AJN Steelstock bimota) +23.026s
- Christian Iddon (Sencat Racing Yamaha) +23.695s
British Superbike Championship standings:
- Kyle Ryde (Nitrous Coin Nitrous Competitions Racing) 484
- Scott Redding (Hager PBM Racing Team) 409
- Bradley Ray (McAMS Yamaha) 369
- Ryan Vickers (Honda Racing UK) 311
- Leon Haslam (Moto Rapido Racing) 308
- Max Cook (AJN Steelstock bimota) 256
- Rory Skinner (Cheshire Mouldings Yamaha) 217
- Danny Kent (Cheshire Mouldings Yamaha) 151
- Lee Jackson (DAO Racing Honda) 144
- Christian Iddon (Sencat Racing Yamaha) 139
For more information visit www.britishsuperbike.com
Kyle Ryde – Nitrous Coin Nitrous Competitions Racing:
“It feels great to win here. I’ll be the first to admit that I was kind of flustered on the first couple of laps. Max caught me napping into the Old Hairpin and at one point, I was fifth, so I just thought that I’d have enough pace to keep up and fight at some point. But it was just the first five laps that it was worrying me with people behind and it all kind of gaggled up into the hairpin.
“As soon as Max came past me it actually helped as I thought, ‘right you can’t be sat in fifth here, you’ve had more pace all weekend’ and then it was hard to get to the front to be honest.
“I had to make some moves that were difficult as everyone was fighting for positions. I can’t remember where I passed Max but with Scott, I think we banged bars twice. He rode round the outside of me at the chicane and then I passed again at the hairpin, and he leant on me and my handlebar got stuck on his leg, so it was difficult!
“Once I got into third and Scott was behind me, I tried my best to put a bike in between us and to pass Brad safely and I went back into second and got a bike in between me and Scott and then I was able to relax.
“It was difficult to pass Ryan and I tried to pass him into Craner and eventually passed him at Starkey’s and from then on I just got my head down and did what I could do.
“It has been a great day. I got pole position and won that first race, so I’m looking forward to tomorrow.”
race 1 BSB
