2024 British Superbikes: Cadwell Park - Race Results (3)

Kyle Ryde was expecting to follow flying Yamaha teammate Ryan Vickers but was thrust into the lead, which he held, holding off attacks from Tommy Bridewell to take a timely double to close round eight of the British Superbike championship, at Cadwell Park.

Race three saw Charlie Nesbitt as the polesitter for the first time at Cadwell Park after a blistering lap in the sprint. He soon had OMG Grilla rider Ryde, then Ryan Vickers ahead of him as the opening two electric laps saw a fierce battle for the lead.

It was Vickers who lead come lap three, but his determination to realise the speed he had shown in testing and practice was his downfall, pushing too hard he was sideways at Coppice and stayed that way as he slid out at turn one in a fast crash onto the grass.

That left Ryde, who had tucked in behind his teammate to follow out front, at that point with Nesbitt still second.

Sprint winner Bridewell started fifth and was making his way forward amidst all the drama out front. By the start of lap eight Coppice was once again in the thick of the action, a popular overtaking point on the narrow Lincolnshire track -with the #1 bike lining up the MasterMac bike in the run to the corner.

From there the reigning champion piled on the pressure to try and gain the position, with the top five in formation.

The group splintered in the latter stages with Ryde applying an increase in speed to pull a gap over Bridewell again, while the MasterMac Honda bikes battled for the final rostrum spot behind.

It was Ryde who held firm out front, maintaining his lead to win over the line by 0.702s. That saw him take a second win at a track where he had not seen victory before this weekend, also picking up the anniversary ‘Cadwell 90’ trophy, celebrating 90 years of racing at the track.

• 2024 British Superbikes: Cadwell Park - Race Results (1)
• 2024 British Superbikes: Cadwell Park - Race Results (2)

Bridewell was on the limit trying to match the bike in front, taking second, which brought up his 100th BSB podium.

It was Lee Jackson who took over third with a clean move at the start of lap eleven, and though Nesbitt never let go, it was his local teammate who was able to pick up a hat-trick of podiums at Cadwell.

Nesbitt pulled away from the last rider in the lead group, Glenn Irwin, with the PBM Ducati rider instead falling back into the clutches of Josh Brookes, who had a mainly lonely ride before the Northern Irish rider came into his sights in the closing stages.

The FHO Racing rider celebrated a better weekend with a burnout, the top BMW in the race in sixth.

Leon Haslam was a distant seventh for ROKiT Haslam Racing, just ahead of Christian Iddon, who was eighth, his best place this weekend for Oxford Products Ducati.

Peter Hickman was racing in the same group and crossed the finish moments later for his best result of the season in ninth on the second FHO Racing bike, with Billy McConnell just over two seconds adrift of that pack to complete the top ten for C&L Fairburn/Look Forward Racing.

Danny Buchan picked up a two second penalty for cutting the chicane on lap 13, that dropped him to eleventh for DAO Racing.

Danny Kent also lost places mid-race, dropping out of the top ten to finish twelfth for McAMS Racing, completing a difficult weekend for the former Moto3 champion.

Storm Stacey was back in the points for LKQ Euro Car Parts Kawasaki in 13th, Max Cook fought his way to 14th for his first scoring result of the meet in 14th for Completely Motorbikes Kawasaki, with Bradley Perie the replacement rider making an impact in race three, picking up the final point on offer for Stauff Fluid Power Kawasaki while sitting in for Tom Neave.

Alex Olsen was the best of the Pathway riders for Cumins by Team IWR Honda in 17th, one place ahead of Lewis Rollo.

Official British Superbike Cadwell Park Records:

Lap record: Bradley Ray (Yamaha, 2022) 1m 25.858s

Cadwell Park in 2023:

Round Eight
Qualifying (superpole): 
1: Ryan Vickers
2: Leon Haslam
3:  Glenn Irwin

Race 1 (Sprint):
1:  Glenn Irwin
2: Kyle Ryde
3: Ryan Vickers

Race 2:
1: Glenn Irwin
2: Kyle Ryde
3: Jason O’Halloran

Race 3:
1: Tommy Bridewell
2: Glenn Irwin
3: Leon Haslam

Crashes, Injuries and Replacements

Louis Valleley made an early exit on the second lap, just before the huge slide though the grass for Vickers. There were no other retirements in the race.

After riding through the pain barrier in race one and two, Jason O’Halloran withdrew before the final time around Cadwell Park after struggling with the hand injuries he picked up in Thruxton.

Andrew Irwin had already withdrawn after FP3 after his huge crash, with Fraser Rogers also unfit.

Tom Ward was 16th for rapid Honda in his final ride of the meeting replacing Franco Bourne.  Richard Kerr, sitting in again for Rory Skinner at Cheshire Mouldings BMW was 21st.

Championship Standings

The points for first meant that before the race Bridewell would be leading, the question was by what margin. Ryde taking maximum points heading into the Showdown portion of the season sees the gap back at 19 points after 23 races, with Bridewell holding a total of 294 to Ryde’s 275.

It was damage limitation after a tough start to the weekend for Glenn Irwin, who remains an improved third overall, now on 234.

Christian Iddon moves onto 231 in fourth, with Vickers an increasingly distant 208 after another DNF, leaving him now 86 off the lead score.