Ryde eyes strong finish to 2017 season

Kyle Ryde has targeted a strong end to the 2017 World Supersport Championships season.

The Jacksdale rider had a disappointing championship round weekend at the Lausitzring circuit in Germany.

And is looking to turn up the heat on the top 10 with four rounds remaining, starting in Portugal on September 15.

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Ryde knows there will need to be a marked improvement between now and then as he again had difficulties with the bike.

A 16th place finish from 21 on the grid on his return to action after the long summer break was down on Ryde’s own expectations.

The Kawasaki rider said: “I’m not very happy with today’s result. I was hoping to get back into the top 10 and bring home a better result.

“After the initial start I recovered several positions, but then it was not easy to retain and throughout the weekend we never really managed to solve our earlier problems.

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“Now there will be another few weeks before the next race in Portugal, where I do hope to be able to make a comeback and once again be more competitive.”

With a slight improvement in the early warm-up laps, Kyle achieved 17th place and was feeling a bit more positive for the race early in the morning sunshine.

Ryde got a good start and was chasing American rider Jacobson down for 15th place, but by lap five Jacobson had moved on and Italian Canducci was on his team-mate’s tail.

For the next few laps Ryde and Canducci were locked together in their own little battle, with both of them swapping places up and down the leader board.

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Ryde had got infront of his team-mate on the 10th lap; in 18th and 19th respectively, meanwhile, team-mate Sofuoglu was having his own fight at the front of the pack with Morias Caricasulo.

As the race entered into the final laps and with Canducci having led Ryde for the last few laps, the red flag was shown by the marshals as Caricasulo had crashed heavily at turn three.

The race had already passed the minimum required 75 per cent distance completed so the positions stood, as Morias took the title ahead of Sofuoglu in second and Mahias in third.

Ryde came in a respectable 16th position 0.2 seconds behind his fellow team-mate. Ryde will next have a chance of creeping up the leaderboard in Portugal from September 15-17.

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