British Superbikes Donington Park: Ryde doubles up as race two lingers on

Kyle Ryde became the first rider to double up after taking the win in the Saturday sprint race with ease then dominating in the third and final outing at his local track in the same fashion.

‘I struggled to get on the bike!’

Race two was the only blot on a perfect weekend for the rider who lives just over twenty minutes from the track - an unexpected and uncharacteristic fall from the lead preventing the LAMi OMG Yamaha rider from completing a perfect set of wins, leaving the #77 slightly worse for wear:

‘It’s been a great weekend in front of the home fans, my home track, favourite track and obviously the weather has been great to us!

So I think it was lap eleven - I didn’t do anything different. I just had a little crash at turn one, unfortunately the bike went end over end and clattered me on the knee so I spent an hour in the medical centre with an ice pack on…I struggled to get on the bike with my knee but once you get off and get a bit of adrenaline everything is fixed!’

• 2023 British Superbikes: Donington Park Race Results (3)
• British Supersport: Max Wadsworth taken to hospital following warm-up crash

• 2023 British Superbikes Donington Park Race Results (2)

Race two and what could have been seemed to be on the minds of all of the race three podium finishers - all of whom failed to finish race two- but the second win seemed to aid Ryde in looking to the future and taking more positives and looking at the whole championship season than the rest:

“Every track we’ve been on the podium now at least so That’s my objective for every track. Knockhill is going to be a tough one to do that - it’s probably one of the worst results-wise for me so to get a podium there is a great understanding that my objective is definitely on track.

‘I ride with my heart - I always have and I always will’.

Second in race three,Tommy Bridewell also failed to feature in race two and it’s something he admits he’s struggled to deal with:

“Tough. Tough. Probably shouldn’t be but I felt, I dunno just a little bit defeated really, in just the first race today in truth.

“I ride with my heart, I always have ans I always will, and, unfortunately, the sort of slight technical earlier was no-ones fault. Just mechanical, a mechanical thing that happened. The positivve is that we’ll learn from that, but genuinely because I ride with my heart I take it hard still sort of puts a lumo in my throat now, I don’t really come to tears over much, I must be honest, but I think I see the effort I put in, I see the effort the team put in, so to not perhaps maximise  the potential of a win was there it was a tough one.

 I felt sad on the grid going into the last race and I felt sad riding the whole race, but I can ride a motorbike without emotion, I can ride in autopilot sometimes.”

‘It’s about what you do on the hard weekends’.

Glenn Irwin came came into Donington full of hope and promise - not only did he leave Oulton Park leading the way after a race win, but the man from Carrickfergus then kept the momentum running with a double Superbike win in the North West 200.

The BeerMonster Ducati rider hit reality when like everyone he arrived excited to try the new surface only not to have his weekend not go to plan:

“We rolled out in FP1, obviously like everyone, really excited to get on the new surface there is this weekend, So, one we got on track - as much as the new track like… a pool table or whatever, THAT smooth, I quickly realised that - Okay, this is going to be harder than Oulton ans actually Silverstone as well.

That realisation saw him make the best of his sixth place in superpole, converting it to a fifth in the sprint.

Race two was when all the issues came to a head:

“Race one we had a duff tyre, absolutely - I’ve never seen a tyre go like that in my life! Not to stressed as we bounced back. Race two we had a technical problem, don’t know if it caused the crash or not - it’s probably a good thing I crashed - let’s put it like that - because something bad might have happened! It’s about what you do on the bad weekends - to come away with a third and another double podium for the team in the last race… this was a tough track for us.

Irwin took the time to praise Yamaha and Ryde - bar an unusual fall an unstoppable combination at Donington - 

“The Yamaha was strong, we had thought that with the smooth surface, what Kyle does through the chicane, it’s like three tenths every lap he takes, or two laps every lap he takes, so you know, there’s a a lot of the track where our bikes were working very good - I take it as a big positive as I think when we go to the traditional tracks or surfaces I think maybe more grip related, our bike will hopefully - continue to be the bike I believe to be on to win the championship".

Depite the negativity that race two caused, especially for Bridewell all three head to Knockhill in June in good standing in the championship.

Tommy Bridewell now takes over again in the lead after three rounds with a total of 119 ina PBM 1-2, but it’s tight at the top.

A podium finish sees Glenn Irwin in second behind his Ducati teammate - behind by just three points. 

Josh Brookes holds third despite his 13th place in the final race as every point proves crucial, he is two behind Irwin on 114.

Leon Haslam saw his consistency rewarded over the last two rounds with the Milwaukee Trophy - a good indication of why he remains fourth overall on 110 and seconf overall in his own 1 man team in those standings behimd the PBM outfit.

The fans rider of the round Kyle Ryde climbs back into contention after a strong home round with two wins to his cradit and sits one point behind Haslam on 109.

The other winner this weekend, Jason O’Halloran -who saw his fortunes finally take an upturn while everyone else saw the gravel,with that podium completed by first timer Ryan Vickers and Brookes, is fifth overall but by some distance- his tally of 70 is a huge 49 points behind Bridewell already and matched by top Kawasaki rider Lee Jackson who is yet to visit the rostrum this season as we next head to Knockhill in June.