Rory Skinner becomes repeat home winner - “ it’s like an emotional wall broke down”

Rory Skinner has been building all season and all weekend at home at Knockhill - on the back of a third place at Donington and a second place at Snetterton, home advantage gave Skinner hope of returning to winning ways in British Superbikes - having taken a win in race two last season and arriving as lap record holder.

The #11 must have felt the odds were slipping out of his favour - after building with a third in race one, Skinner moved up to second in the sprint, but after taking the lead the race was red flagged for the weather, Skinner hit the front on the restart, which was then red flagged again for a crash.

• 2025 British Superbikes: Knockhill - Race Results (2)
• 2025 British Superbikes: Knockhill - Race Results (3)

The third time of asking saw Skinner now on pole but Ray get ahead instead, so the Scottish rider was ready to push for a swift comeback:

“Obviously with the red flags at the beginning of the race, well the restarts, it was - I felt like I’d done the job like straight away in both the first and second restart. So when it came to the third it was like ‘right, we’ve got to do this one more time. This is going to be the choice of doing it’ and honestly just got my head down, worked hard.

Brad got a good start, and he just pushed me a little bit wide at turn one. After the move he put on me at turn three yesterday, I was like ‘yep well you did it to me yesterday so I’ll do it to you today’.

So when I got to the front, I felt strong, felt confident. I knew I could push pretty strong right away, just got the head down, put the hammer down, just try kind of being at the front.”

The Cheshire Mouldings rider was aware from the pace shown by Ray in his previous wins that he could go with him at the front:

“I didn't know if Brad was gonna have the pace to come with me or not because I knew he had gone pretty fast in that first kind of iteration of the race.

I just watched the gap on the board open up a little bit by a little bit, by a little bit - honestly this last six laps I just kept myself down and once I went over that start/finish line for the win, it was like an emotional wall broke down.”

2024 saw two major crashes for the #11, with his Cheshire Mouldings team standing by him throughout. Skinner was pleased to be on the top step once again, not just because it was his home round, but also the round where he managed to take a win last season despite what he went through:

“It’s been a tough twelve months. It’s been pretty, pretty strenuous on myself and my family and you know, also the team as well. So massive thank you to the guys at TAS Racing, Cheshire Mouldings Ducati for sticking by me. There was times where I didn’t believe I could do it and they always had faith in me.

So to be here now, with another race win at Knockhill 12 months later, it’s honestly really special, you know - it means more than the first one I would say, just because everything we went through to get here and I’m feeling good on the Ducati now. I’m feeling comfortable on it. I’m feeling pretty good in all conditions now and yeah, I’m ready for the rest of the season.”