British Superbikes, Brands Hatch: Vickers - ‘I just want to deliver what I know is possible’

Ryan Vickers had shown what he was capable of with some very consistent lapping in qualifying, then translated that to metronomic pace, setting fastest times, lap after lap for a Brands Hatch masterclass in race one.

The OMG Grilla Yamaha rider got a great start with only Danny Kent going with him, then falling out of contention soon after - a welcome change to the sickness and falls over the last few rounds after a positive start to the season where he took both wins at the season opener in Navarra:

“An amazing race, amazing start, amazing weekend really, so thanks to the OMG Grilla Racing Yamaha, we’ve had a couple of bad rounds now and some of our own fault and some out of our control, so thanks to their belief in me, you know. First of all they believed in what I’ve been saying about the bike and stuff and we’ve made considerable changes for this round, so yeah really great, cracking job to those boys, they work so hard.

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

I just want to deliver what I know is possible and what everyone deserves, so we did that today. Got out front, Set some really good lap times. You know my first flying lap I think it’s low, low 25, I believe I was setting the fastest laps of the race quite often, so I just tried to keep that pace, I got in a rhythm”.

That blistering pace on repeat saw Vickers able to build a lead of almost nine second on the #7 bike:

I was hitting my mark and the bike was hitting the apexes, you know, where I was breaking and I was thinking ‘right, we’re in sync’ so I just used my head, I kept fully focused, didn’t really slow down much - I backed off a tiny bit in a couple of areas where it was a bit closer to the limit, just to be a little bit safe, but really happy to be in the 25s pretty much every lap of the race".

Vickers was sure that if pushed he could have picked up the pace even more, and credits his form at the Kent circuit to studying videos of last seasons races, and although he saw success on the opening visit to Brands with a sprint win and a third in race three, it was the Showdown races that were his focus as the riders and bikes are naturally faster as the season goes on, something which he hoped to emulate now instead:

“I believe if we had someone pushing us, we would have been able to go a bit quicker as well.

I’ve been watching the races back from the end of the year here last year and I’ve been telling myself there’s absolutely no reason why I can’t be fast at this first round, you know. I’ve ridden around this track at the end of last year and I’ve done 24s , so to get close to that is really, really good.

I battled for the podium here last year on the second from last lap and set the fastest lap”.