Scott Redding’s BSB Donington win gives “little bit of hope” ahead of Brands Hatch

Scott Redding arrived at the penultimate round of the BSB championship, a Showdown format return to Donington Park, with a 68 point title deficit, which only increased as Kyle Ryde got off to a flying start, winning both Race 1 on Saturday, and the Sprint earlier on Sunday.

Speaking to British Superbikes after the race, The Hager PBM rider explained how winning felt special, especially after a tough start to the weekend, where all the changes made by the team seemed to send the Ducati in the wrong direction:

“Winning the race is always special, every race is hard, so winning a race does feel good. And, after yesterday, struggling, this morning in warm-up, struggling, and then just biting the screen, getting through that sprint race, I was just chewing the screen thinking I got to make this, I got to make this work - and I just  didn’t really have that punch out of the corner.

Got past Kyle one time, but once he got his rhythm, he’s riding so well -it’s difficult to pull up alongside him and make a move that isn’t really crazy, should we say”.

The 2019 BSB champion saw a change of fortunes in the final race at Donington, from a front row start, Redding this time only needed to deal with an electric start from a back on form Max Cook:

“The last race, I felt confident in the bike - we changed a little bit power delivery to help me, just got my head down.

Into turn one, Max took the lead and I thought, we’ll see. He’s normally strong at the start of the race, so I thought I used Max as like, a pacesetter and I was looking at lap times and I thought, no - he’s riding pretty good.

We were in the low 27s and high 26’s and I thought, I’ll let that run for a little bit, ‘cause we’re also pulling a little bit from behind, so it made sense for me to stay calm.

I also didn’t know if Max was just going to go 100% and just see what happens. I feel like, how he was riding, he was kind of controlling, but not a lot, and I almost got sucked in a little bit”.

Redding had made his move to the front as Cook began to fade slightly through tyre wear, when fate offered the number 45 an helping hand. Behind, Ryde, who had completed a run of 89 races without a DNF was experiencing an electrical failure, with a black flag taking him out of the race after an attempt to re-join as the issue passed:

“When he first got the start of the tyre drop - that’s when I kind of pounced. I thought now I’ll just try and keep that rhythm, not slow down. I might get stuck in a slower pace.

Then I saw number 1 - it was like black with white ‘cause the panels are quite far, and I was like, is that the black and white flag for cutting the green? And I was like, I dunno, looking, I was slowing up and I thought - is it a safety car? Like I was just kind of slowing down mid-race.

I didn’t know Kyle was out, the team didn’t let me know - I think ‘cause I had a nice rhythm, they just let me keep ticking off the laps. The gap was going up, luckily, because that feels good - and yeah, it’s unfortunate. I don’t wish that upon anyone. But the best thing I could of done is won that race, whether Kyle was in it or not.

That was my plan - If he comes past, we’re going to try and battle it out like we always do, but it gives me a little bit of hope going into Brands. I’ve had my unfortunate races this year, so - we’ll see what happens”.

The result means that Redding now heads to Brands Hatch in two weeks time a closer 53 points behind Ryde, with Bradley Ray still just in mathematical contention at 104 behind.