Jacksdale’s defending champion Kyle Ryde takes over at the top of the British Superbikes standings
Jacksdale star Kyle Ryde took a massive step towards defending his Bennetts British Superbike Championship at Cadwell Park with a race win and two seconds to take over at the top of the standings at the weekend.
Leader Bradley Ray crashed in race two on Sunday and then finished 12th in race three on Bank Holiday Monday and Ryde has now edged in front by two points for the Nitrous Competitions Racing Yamaha team ahead of the four-race weekend at Donington Park.
“It's been a great weekend – long, quite sweaty and difficult on the body,” said Ryde.
“That last race was very tough, but it was nice to have a good bike under me for 12 laps.
“I even had enough to have a bit of a dig with four or five laps to go and pulled a bit of a gap out
“It was a perfect race really. The last two laps were very difficult. I tried to slow it down and ended up nearly crashing three times.
“It was great to repay the team and I thought we could have won two races this weekend.
“But it was nice to get that last one and also to get King of the Mountain as well again from last year .
“I used to hate this track and now I love it.”
Ray topped the opening free practice session with just 0.031s separating him from Ryde at the chequered flag.
In combined free practice, Ryde then edged to within 0.040s of the fastest ever British Superbike Championship lap of Cadwell Park to hold off Ray by just 0.007s.
But Ray claimed the fastest lap in Omologato Superpole, firing the Raceways Yamaha to the top of the times, displacing Ryde from top spot by 0.195s.
In race one Ray held off Ryde by an incredible 0.087s at the chequered flag while Andrew Irwin became the 13th different podium finisher of the season.
On the penultimate lap, Ryde tried to make his move at Chris Curve and the pair almost touched, as Ryde was forced to back out of the move to avoid contact.
Tommy Bridewell scored his first victory of the season in race two as Honda Racing UK returned to winning ways at their home circuit.
Meanwhile Ryde snatched second on the final lap at the Hairpin from Andrew Irwin, more than halving Ray’s points’ advantage to 12 after Ray crashed out on lap two from the lead.
Bridewell then had the lead with teammate Irwin and Ryde in close contention.
It wasn’t until the final lap that Ryde made a decisive move at the Hairpin to take second.
Ryde then delivered a faultless victory in race three while Ray relinquished the lead in the standings after a 12th place finish following a difficult race as Honda Racing UK celebrated a double podium finish with Irwin and Bridewell.
At the start Irwin had fired himself into the lead, but Ryde was instantly on the attack with a decisive move at Park on the brakes to lead.
Ryde now heads to the four-race Donington Park round on 284 points with Ray second on 282.