Ryan Vickers “turned a massive corner with myself” in BSB 2026

Ryan Vickers’ return season to BSB after a year in WorldSBK started in difficult circumstances, but by the end of the year he was arguably the reference of the non-Ducati field.

Vickers wound up fourth in the championship by the end of the last weekend at Brands Hatch, finishing behind Yamaha’s Bradley Ray who had started the season better but who was unable to have the outright speed of Vickers for most of the second half of the year.

The Honda Racing UK rider ended the year with five wins compared to Ray’s two, and finished without any major injuries and without having to miss races, which had been a problem for him in the past in BSB.

“I really feel like I’ve turned a massive corner with myself,” Ryan Vickers told Crash.net after the final race of the season at Brands Hatch when reflecting on his 2026.

“I’m not making massive mistakes. 

“I crashed out of one race this year, I think, got took out of one, and had a mechanical. So, there’s been three DNFs this year and one of them was my fault, and that’s really not bad going, it’s very consistent. 

“We haven’t had many crashes all year, and considering the situation, [meaning] we’ve been on a bike that’s been underperforming and we’ve been riding over the limit – way over the limit – and we’re still not crashing and making results. 

“So, I’m really proud of the team, I’m really proud of myself. I feel like I’ve turned a corner.

“I feel like I’ve been able to raise the level in Honda as well; I feel like I’ve been able to bring a lot from world championship and also the Yamaha I rode in BSB to these guys to improve the package, and they’ve been believing in me, which is the biggest thing.”

Vickers finished the season with a victory, although his Race 2 at Brands Hatch saw him down in fifth. He had been struggling with wheelie all weekend at Brands Hatch, and that cost him in the shorter race of the three, but in general the weekend represented a step forward compared to the July Brands Hatch round which saw Vickers take two sixths and a fifth.

“Loads better than what we were at the start of the year,” Vickers said of the Brands Hatch finale weekend.

“We didn’t actually have any problems here at the start of the year, but just our bike just struggles here, we get a lot of wheelie and that has been and was the biggest problem.

“We’ve just minimised that and made the bike better in a few other areas. 

“We were able to capitalise on all our strong points this weekend. 

“But unfortunately in Race 2 I think everybody else made a step and we just lose too much time on acceleration on wheelie – the Ducati is very good with that, even the Yamaha is better, it doesn’t wheelie so much. 

“We lost a little bit in Race 2, but Race 1 was fantastic. Two out of the three podiums and a win – just mega.”