Ryan Vickers sees “massive improvement” on Donington BSB return

Ryan Vickers had already secured second in the first race as the BSB paddock returned to Donington Park for the Showdown, with a third in the sprint under his belt earlier in the day continuing a successful return to the circuit.

The Honda UK Racing rider has been riding on painkillers with physio overnight after inflicting injury on himself. After a tough first visit when the Honda was still experiencing huge chatter, with a best result of eighth, Vickers was so pleased with his qualifying performance that he pulled out a celebratory stoppie - and crashed, injuring his back.

Despite that a determined Vickers did everything he could to feature at the front of every race, with the final Race 3 no different, as he explained to British Superbikes at the end of the Donington round:

“I genuinely didn’t leave anything out there, I don’t really care what the weekend looks like as long as i go away from the weekend thinking I couldn’t have done anything more, you know, and that’s just nice that we’ve been able to bring home three podiums”.

Early changes took the team in the wrong direction, seeing a return to the chatter from early rounds in the 2026 championship, which had mostly be removed again through the races, with Vickers then able to compete for the podium places, something which was not on the cards back in round two:

“We had so many issues this weekend, even race 2, really struggled with vibration. Last race, had a massive spin on lap three or four coming out of Melbourne, and it stretched the chain. The bike was jumping the sprocket the whole rest of the race. I was getting vibration on deceleration, acceleration - everything. Thought my wheels were gonna fall out coming out the Schwantz Curve, which wasn’t easy.

It would have been nice to have a good bike and be able to fight with Max…but you know, the guys are setting a real strong pace.

Scott at the front was, it was unbelievable - 26’s mid-race was something I couldn’t match, I was doing 27.1 and I was like, jeez, I’ve got nothing left here”.

In closing, Vickers explained that he was hoping to be able to continue his momentum into the final round, a solid meeting for the number seven earlier in the year, but also where he completed a memorable triple win back in 2024:

“Top Honda again - It’s really nice to be fighting at the front again, massive improvement from the start of the year, it’s just nice to keep this momentum going into the last round. Brands is a track that, you know, I’ve done the triple and dominated round there in the past and look forward to going there at the end of the year”.