British Superbikes, Oulton Park - Vickers: “The bike was back!”

Ryan Vickers had been struggling with an unknown issue in the first two races but bounced back for a podium finish at Oulton Park.

Lisa Lewis

06 May 2024

Ryan Vickers, BSB, 2024, Oulton Park
© Ian Hopgood Photography

Ryan Vickers had arrived at Oulton Park on a high after taking both available wins in the opening round at Navarra.

The Grilla OMG Yamaha rider was still running a strong pace on arrival at the Cheshire track, which also hosted the paddock for a test prior to running the second round.

Vickers went on to a top three start in FP1, but the team became sure that his small fall in FP2 had affected the bike in some way.

That lead to the #7 finishing fifth in race one and then a off the pace ninth in the sprint.

The mechanics and Vickers never stopped searching for the issue, and think the discovered what had made the bike so difficult earlier, and the 25 year old was happy to have a machine that he recognised back:

“I just got my bike back, how it was in testing and the start of the weekend, I don’t know the exact issue yet, but I had a small crash at the end of FP1, like a little low side, but the bike went over a kerb, might have caused an issue.

The guys changed a lot of parts and we think we know the issue, but the bike was back to how it was normally.

Vickers elaborated on what he felt was missing from his race package:

“The Yamaha is normally great mid-corner, can run loads of speed and I had absolutely none of that and the bike was chattering front and rear and I was just running wide, so it was a bit strange.

“I was riding races waiting for the next person to pass me, basically was just hanging on and trying to stay on the bike.

Back to his best Vickers looked capable, with a bit more experience at the front, of catching the Ducati duo as the bike suited Oulton Park, with his improved performance giving something to look forward to at the next round at Donington Park:

“I think that last race we could have had a bit more but it just took me a bit longer, just to actually get used to riding the bike properly again.

“So that was good, then at the end of the race we were doing 33’s for quite a few of the last few laps and we cleared the gap".