Rory Skinner was “ready to drive home” before Snetterton BSB turnaround

Rory Skinner says he was ready to “drive home” after crashing in Race 1 at the Snetterton BSB before bouncing back on Sunday with a recovery ride that surprised even him.

Skinner was involved in the turn two crash initiated by Graeme Irwin in Race 1. 

The consequences were less severe for Skinner, who was able to line up again on Sunday, than they were for Glenn Irwin, who was sent to hospital.

But the Cheshire Mouldings Yamaha rider was ready to give up on the weekend before Sunday, which turned out to be a positive day of recovery with a ride in Race 2 to go from 19th on the grid to fourth at the finish.

“[After Race 1], I’m not going to lie, I was ready to pack up my van and drive home last night,” Skinner said, speaking to Crash.net after Race 3 at Snetterton.

“I was not having a good weekend, but to be fair to the guys they got the bike all sorted last night and went out this morning in Warm Up, felt pretty good straight away. 

“Race 2 was a bit of a surprise to be honest, going from 19th to fourth wasn’t what I expected. Really happy with it. 

“That last race then, P6 again – been the story of my season, P6, but, after the weekend I’ve had, to be a fourth and a sixth today, I’ll take it.”

The final race saw Skinner run in sixth for a while. He finished there thanks to a Max Cook retirement late on, having been passed shortly before by Leon Haslam which had initially dropped him to seventh.

Skinner was able to latch onto Haslam in the final laps and finished just half-a-second behind the Moto Rapido Ducati rider, but the Scot was left frustrated by the straight line comparison between the Panigale V4 R and the Yamaha R1, which in this case also encountered a technical problem in Race 3.

“It’s hard to compete with the speed of some of these Ducatis,” he said.

“I think it’s pretty clear for everyone to see that. 

“We actually ended up having a little bit of a problem, actually something from the crash yesterday that we hadn’t thought it was damaged – it wasn’t damaged because we did Warm Up and Race 2, but it broke in Race 2. 

“So, we kind of lost a bit of power on top of that as well in the last race about halfway through and that didn’t help things. 

“But credit to the boys, they did an incredible job all weekend, Cheshire Mouldings Yamaha smashed it out the park and looking forward to Brands Hatch now.”

Ray results “fill me with confidence”

Bradley Ray has been the class of the Yamaha contingent this year so far, generally speaking. Skinner himself has often been the second-best Yamaha but has been unable to make an impression on the leaders so far.

But the performances of Ray are a source of optimism for Skinner, who is still finding his feet after four rounds on the Yamaha.

“It’s ongoing I would say,” Skinner said of his adaptation to the Yamaha, after a year apiece on BMW and Ducati machinery since returning to BSB in 2024.

“It’s obviously nice to see Brad [Ray] doing the job, obviously his win yesterday was well deserved and it fills me with confidence to see what he’s doing on the bike, and it makes me work even harder than what I already am, if that’s possible, to make sure I’m on my A-game.

“Brad’s been on [the Yamaha] for five years now, I’ve been on it for three months, my guys have been working on it for three months as well. 

“It’s a case of we’re taking it step-by-step. We’re getting closer, kind of consistently the second Yamaha to Brad which is nice. 

“I don’t want to be comparing to Brad because I’m racing the rest of the field, however it’s always a good baseline to have.”