Ryde third in ”one of the most enjoyable races” at Thruxton BSB finale

Kyle Ryde had his worst, by his own very high standards, finish in the BSB sprint earlier in the day, but was back on the podium just one race later, leaving Thruxton with third in Race 3.

Second on the grid, like all the riders on the rostrum, Ryde had to give best to the early pace of the Cheshire Mouldings Yamaha duo with Danny Kent, and long term race leader Rory Skinner out front.

Ryde, was under-powered in a straight line, saying after the race in parc ferme to the official BSB radio feed that he had been allowed to run a normal Superstock engine this weekend on request, to help preserve tyres and make the Ducati package competitive, which he touched on in his post-race interview with British Superbikes, in their podium reactions segment, while also revealing the race was as enjoyable to ride in as it was to watch, finishing behind Bradley Ray and race winner Ryan Vickers:

“I was a little bit smarter in that one, just when I went back to third, I tried my best to get back to second, and yeah, my bike wasn’t the fastest down the back straight.

So, the first half of the race I was trying to be clever with Rory, giving myself a couple of attempts, so I picked up the slipstream, and hopefully stayed in second. But, to be honest that was one of the most enjoyable races I’ve had for ages. Everyone was passing each other, in stupid places, and it was just a good race all round.”

The Nitrous Coin Nitrous Competitions rider had broken the Yamaha dominance with a win in race one, but Sunday saw him start his day fourth in the Sprint, pushed back right at the end a further spot by a late move from rival Ray, something the championship leader was keen not to repeat, adding:

“Credit to Ryan and Brad, they rode a good last few laps. Had a bit more than me. I was just happy to dig in and finish off what I missed out on earlier, with Brad riding around the outside of me after 12 laps - he ruined half my day there! So I managed to get him back in that one, and yeah, nice to get back on the box.”

On being asked how he managed the moments late in the race, as tyre wear came into play over the 20 lap feature race at Thruxton, Ryde explained how difficult it was to pull off the passes the fans were treated to, but also took time to praise his fellow podium finishers, who were sat to the side of him while being interviewed:

“When you take a second off the lap time and sit in the group, the front tyre pressure goes up a little bit and you just lose so much feeling with the front and then, when you get to the end of the race and you’ve got loads of tyre, you think ‘right. I’m going to make a move now’ - and when you go for it, you’ve got no front tyre, so it’s very difficult, but we all managed it very well. We managed to get through the last chicane 20 times. I don’t know how, credit to everyone. Everyone’s done a good job today, and well done to these two.