British Superbikes, Thruxton: Ryde -”Fun to watch on the TV”, for us “bit of a nightmare really!”

Kyle Ryde learned from following Jason O’Halloran out front, and timed his last lap to perfection, with a bit of luck, to come out on top in a huge, exciting seven way battle to the final corner at Thruxton.

• 2024 British Superbikes: Thruxton - Qualifying Results
• 2024 British Superbikes: Thruxton - Race Results (1)

The OMG Grilla rider showed he had the pace to be a contender with pole position earlier in the day. The Yamaha rider had never been on the podium before at the Hampshire track, so was keen to show what he could do from further up the grid:

“I’ve always been stronger in the last sector, on any bike, but the last couple of years I’ve not been in a place really to show it because I’ve always been slow around the other bits, so it’s nice to be able to finally figure out how to ride around Thruxton.

Taking a pole position and a race win in the long race - never thought I’d do that this weekend! So yeah, I’ve already ticked many boxes before we’ve even got to Sunday”.

Ryde pointed out that his Yamaha and Jason O’Halloran were battling the wind more out front, while the group behind could slipstream through, which lead to a team1-2 as Ryan Vickers took advantage to go from second back into the pack and still manage to come back out for a rostrum visit:

“The wind has been heading straight in our face down the back straight, which makes our bike basically into a 600 and the slipstream works massively so…Ryan came out of Church in sixth and ended up finishing second - so it’s not a normal situation on a superbike - we’ve got to get used to it because the wind is always in that direction.

I’m sure it was fun to watch on the TV, but for us it was a bit of a nightmare really!”

Ryde felt like he learned a lot from his wise decision to stay behind O’Halloran, who has a superior record at Thruxton:

“Jason set a pace at the front which was saving tyre, so me being - I don’t know the word - I won’t say ‘grown up’ but smart - he’s won many more races than anyone, probably double the amount - so I was clever enough to follow him, learned a lot - because obviously my best finish around here I think has been sixth, so to go from that to a win - I must have done something right!”

With seven riders in contention over the longer twenty lap distance the #77 is expecting the shorter twelve lap sprint on Sunday to be chaotic, Ryde will start 13th on the fairly reversed grid:

“Everybody’s got pace so that sprint race is going to be an absolute maniac festival!”